


Hack is Strange

by Dhaem17



Category: Hack/Slash, Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: AU bay/bae ending, Alternate Universe - Life Is Strange Fusion, Crossover, Dark Comedy, F/F, F/M, Fire, Horror, Life Is Strange Spoilers, Post-Save Arcadia Bay Ending, Post-Save Chloe Price Ending, pricefield
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2019-10-11 19:33:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 24,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17452952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dhaem17/pseuds/Dhaem17
Summary: Chloe Price meets an interesting pair of people in the road who are in need of a ride to Arcadia Bay, just as the same time strange and horrible crimes start plaguing the town.





	1. Prologue 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing fiction in english so I apologize for any typos or grammar mistakes. I've no idea if I will continue developing this or letting it as a one-shot or plot bunny up for adoption.

The road was clear and the old truck drove slow but secure towards Arcadia Bay in the last hours of daylight. The young blue haired woman at the wheel had a slight look of irritation in her face -mostly because of the short trip to Portland- but she wasn't angry, not really.

You could say that for the first time in a shitload of time Chloe Price was fucking happy.

Maybe it was because she finally was turning her life around, with the GED or her new job on the record store. Or because of her improved relationship with her mother and the step-dou... dad, her sped-dad. Or maybe it was because she now had a sort of social circle she didn't have since... ever.

But mostly, it was because of Max Caulfield. Her best friend... no, her _girlfriend_.

Chloe had to fight hard to not smile like a goof. There was a hardcore punk rock girl look to maintain. If you were able to look at her right now you could say she failed in that prospect.

_But I don't give a fuck, nope. Let's smile._

When Max came back into her life a year ago... shit went crazy. A good crazy, and a bad crazy. More like a fucking terrifying crazy at times.

Out of nowhere Max had developed this weird power to travel back in time and soon they were involved in one of the nastiest secrets of Arcadia Bay. A part of Chloe still could not believe all the stuff that happened with the Prescotts and Jefferson-of-a-bitch, the disappearance and death of Rachel... and The Storm.

Capital S for the fucker, yes. The Storm still plagued Max's nightmares and if meteorological/supernatural disasters had a face to be punched, Chloe would've turned the fucking Storm in mincemeat. She really didn't want to know how many time-jumps it took poor Max to solve the fucking thing. It was barely noticeable for most people, but Chloe could swear that Max had aged a year in a week at the least. Literally.

At first the girl thought she was at fault, that the Storm was a result of her powers, some kind of crazy butterfly effect that demanded Chloe to be sacrificed. It didn't work. The Storm was a different kind of beast. It took Max a while to connect all the dots, but in the end everything went back to those fuckers of the Prescott family. And the Tobanga Totem.

_If you told me a whole town could be saved from a ghost tornado by an act of vandalism against a native relic a year ago I would have laughed._

But things got better. No one else died and Arcadia Bay got less shitty for Chloe, mostly because of Max.

Mind you, Arcadia Bay was still one of those places where fucked up stuff happened once in a while, like the deaths of those two stoners last week near the old mill. Nasty stuff...

And with all those thoughts dancing in her head Chloe saw the pair.

Walking in the border of the road towards the town, with the universal thumb of hitchhiking visible to see. Now, Chloe was not stupid. She knew that taking a hitchhiker involved a certain risk, and those two certainly had looks that would have scream "stranger danger" to most people.

But to Chloe most people were judgmental assholes, so she slowed down her truck until she was side by side with the pair of travellers to get a good look at them. They were quite the sight.

The man was... tall. Ok, not only tall, the dude was a human tank of pure muscle. Dressed in a trench coat and with a sort of old gas mask covering his face. It was obvious he dad some kind of deformity. Not many people had skulls shaped like that or grey greenish skin. And yet, in spite of those looks and how intimidating he was, Chloe didn't feel danger coming for the guy. Hell, the way his head tilted with curiosity at her reminded her of a puppy.

His companion on the other hand...

Now, it must be made clear that Chloe Price loved Max Caulfield wholeheartedly. It was an **universal truth**. Zero doubts.

But Chloe Price was still a young lady with eyes. And hormones. And... _damn_.

The young woman in front of her was probably in her mid-twenties. She had jet-black hair and, in spite of a light scowl, a hella gorgeous face.

_Black lipstick. Must convince Max to try it. Holy shit._

Now, Chloe knew that her punk rock looks were considered extreme by a certain amount of people in Arcadia Bay - _sanctimonius assholes_ \- but the goth rock looks of the female hitchhiker were on a whole different level. A black bra perfectly visible under a very see-through fishnet shirt. A small, almost nonexistent dark miniskirt. Black and red stockings. The most modest piece of her attire was the old leather jacket.

And in contrast with the big guy, Chloe could tell this gal was the most dangerous of the two. She was in a very good shape, not overly muscular but still quite athletic, and something in her reminded Chloe of a fucking panther about to strike.

_That is more hot than it should be._

Chloe lowered the truck window.

"Do you need a ride, guys?"

The goth girl smiled, the scowl went away from her face and her stance suddenly was more relaxed.

"Sure. We are heading to Arcadia Bay. Do you know the place?"

"Well, it's your lucky day that I'm going there, feel free to enter."

The goth looked back at the man with her "Er.. tough maybe we are going to be a bit cramped, buddy"

"DoNt WorRy. I Can bE in thE cArGO bed"

"Nonsense dudes" said Chloe "There's space enough for the three of us... jump aboard!"

And so they did.

What followed was a minute of awkward silence before Chloe decided to speak to her new passengers.

"So... you're coming to Arcadia Bay... because... you're tourists? Fuck, stupid question, I suck at small talk with strangers, forget I say anything guys".

The other girl gave a small and actually quite nice smile when she answered, "I also suck at small talk with most people, don't worry. I would let my buddy here talk for me if he wasn't even worse"

"HuRn. FunNy, CaSs"

"So your name is Cass... ah, shit, manners... I'm Chloe Price, nice to meetcha"

"Cassandra Hack. Just call me Cassie. And big guy here is Vlad"

"In sPite of THe naMe Im nOt a vAmPIre"

Cassie rolled her eyes in an obvious sign that there was some kind of joke there that grown old fast. Chloe was getting more and more intrigued by the pair.

"And aswering your question, Chloe", continued Cass, "We're getting to Arcadia Bay because of... well... our job"

"Aw, sucks. What kind of job?"

Cassie looked at her. The predatory look was there again in her eyes, barely hidden.

"You could say we are... exterminators"

"HuRn, hUrn... moRe Or LeSs"

Cassandra Hack smiled, and Chloe could tell she had a hella slasher smile. The bluenette gulped, with a little bit of fear and more excitement that she would like to admit.

It seemed life was going to get strange in Arcadia Bay once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... a Life is Strange/Hack Slash crossover. I don't want to give much away but if you're not familiar with Hack/Slash (the comic book) google it up and you will easily get an idea of what kind of messy trouble our heroines are going to deal with.
> 
> The timeline for Life is Strange here is one year after the events of the game with an AU ending where Max more or less solved everything. I decided to kept details vague. Just keep in mind that Chloe mentioning vandalism to solve the problem with the totem should be read as an oversimplification of more messed up stuff. Probably.


	2. Prologue 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it seems this is not a one shot anymore. Lets see how long I can keep going with the story. I've some ideas but again let me remind you, fair reader, that english isn't even my second language, so I'm not in my full capability here. Once more, apologies for any typo or grammar mistake. Fell free to point them in the comments, it would be appreciated.
> 
> Warning, bit of gorey stuff here.

_Oh Dog, what's happening now?_

An instant ago the girl was in her girlfriend's new apartment (a concept that still sounded alien to her sometimes) trying to not doze off while revising her portfolio. It had been a quiet day, one of those days of easy and comfortable routine that she had grown to cherish up to a certain point. But now she seemed to be somewhere in the middle of the woods at night, on a narrow dirt path. She could hear some faint voices nearly, two people talking.

Almost in autopilot, she started walking towards the voices. Soon she could see it, the Old Mill. She had heard of the place, many times, and knew it was abandoned for the last few years, since one big forest fire. Apparently that didn't stop a pair of young men taking a visit to the place.

There was only moonlight, their quiet voices, and the sounds of the forest.

They were sitting in the hood of an old car, talking while taking puffs from a joint that was being shared between the two . She recognized them. Blackwell students, a year below hers. Wyatt Temple and Joshua Collins. She had never met them but still knew their names, because they were dead.

_They died last week, I remember the news. This is the past, then. Am I having visions of past events now?_

She felt something cold in her back when a new thought entered her min.

_Oh, no... no no no... Don't tell me I'm going to see how they... No._

One of the two boys -Wyatt- stood from the car "Dude, gonna be away for a minute"

"Where to?"

"I need to take a pee"

"And you can't do it here?"

"Man, that would be weird, with you looking. Shit like that makes me nervous"

"Fuck that... don't take too long"

Wyatt paused for a moment before going, "Shit man, are you scared?"

"No"

"Yes you are! You're totally scared of being alone here!", he laughed.

"Not my fault this place is creepy, asshole", replied Joshua.

"You're the one that proposed coming here, dude!"

"Because is secluded and nobody comes anymore,  which makes it a good place to take a joint without dealing with anyone else's shit. But is still creepy"

Wyatt shook his head, annoyed and amused in equal parts, "Whatever man... don't get scared, I will be right back"

_He should have not said that, too much of a horror movie cliché._

Time was fuzzy. At least her perception of it, like on a dream.

The girl could not tell how long it was or if everything happened in barely an instant since Wyatt left Joshua alone. Joshua stood up from the car too and started walking towards the direction his friend went previously.

"Wyatt?"

There was a quiet noise, and heat in the air.

The girl followed, realizing that she wasn't moving on her own. She tried to talk, but not voice came from her mouth. There was no sign that the boys realized her presence since she arrived. She could move more or less freely around then, but it was obvious she was invisible to their senses.

_I'm like a ghost from Christmas yet to come or something._

"Wyatt, you're taking too long. If you're trying to make a joke it's not funny, dude"

She then smelled it, just when Joshua turned the corner of the old building. The boy stopped walking instantly, paralyzed from the sight in front of him.

Wyatt was there, in the ground, his pants down to his knees and his face twisted in a painful grimace. His eyes were black smoking holes. His chest was torn open, ribs and organs visible. But there was no blood. Just burned out flesh, blackened like charcoal.

The smell was nauseating.

The joint fell from Joshua's mouth as he started going backwards. It seemed he was trying to say something, or scream, but couldn't. The horror and shock was too much. The girl didn't feel any better. She closed her eyes, full with tears, trying to avoid the gruesome scene but somehow _she could still see_.

_Oh dog, oh no, oh no, what is this, oh no, no no... I need to wake up, I need to..._

Joshua turned around and run back to the car. Well, he tried to.

Because the moment he turned around, the... _thing_ was just in front of him.

There was no other word that could describe the being that now stood there. Darkness concealed its features from the girl but she realized that even if maybe it was human once... that was not the case, not anymore.

The girl watched how that rotten unliving thing caressed the boy's cheek with a feminine flayed hand, almost delicately.

"Oh, no, please, no..."

" **Fire...** ", the thing crooned.

"No, please, no, I'm sorry, I'm...", those were Joshua Collins last words.

" **...walk with me** "

There was a hissing sound, and the smell of burning flesh. And the vision collapsed in bright light, red.

Like fire.

And the girl who watched, Maxine Caulfield, woke up screaming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is actually a single word that could describe the being that stood there. Cassie Hack knows.


	3. Cassie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a sort of presentation of Cassie Hack's backstory for readers that are here for Life is Strange and are totally unfamiliar with Hack/Slash. The whole "the strange story of Cassie Hack" comes from the first Hack/Slash one-shot, "Euthanized", published in 2004. You can also find it in the omnibus edition of the series.

There are three things that you should know about Cassie Hack above anything else.

She's mean.

She's hard to kill.

She hunts slashers.

The first one it's a lie (she's only mean if you truly deserve it... as in being an asshole, or a bigot, or an undead psychopath with a fetish for killing teenagers). The second she would tell you is a mix of experience and dumb luck (even though reality it's more complicated).

The third has been her life since she was fifteen.

Let me tell you, fair reader, the strange story of Cassie Hack.

_Cassandra Hack grew up in a small town in western Wisconsin. Her father left soon after she was born, and Cassie was left with her overbearing, eccentric mother, a cook at the nearby high school._

_Cassie grew into a bitter teenager, considered a freak by her classmates. Her mother watched unhappily as her daughter was chastised and tormented._

_That's when students began to disappear._

_The disappearances corresponded to a sudden strange "mystery meat" being served in the high school cafeteria, and it didn't take long before the clues pointed to Mrs. Hack... the school lunch lady. Hack had been murdering students she felt had treated her daughter unfairly, and serving them with a side of fries and chocolate milk._

_When confronted Hack plunged her head into a pot of boiling gravy, leaving her teenage daughter an orphan._

_Cassie was placed in a foster home, a new school... but news of her connection with the notorious "Lunch Lady" made her even more unpopular than before. Soon, girls began to disappear, signaling the horrific return of the Lunch Lady, reborn as a vengeful killer from beyond the grave._

_A slasher._

_Feeling responsible for the deaths, Cassie hunted down and destroyed the Lunch Lady... her own mother._

_Driven by guilt and lacking any connection to anyone or anyplace, Cassie turned her back on a "normal" life and became a hunter of killers._

_It was on one of these hunts that she met the man known as Vlad. A misshapen, gentle creature that she mistook for a slasher. Vlad became Cassie's traveling companion, offering his fierce, monstrous power to her cause._

_Together they hunt down and destroy slashers... wherever they may be, whatever form they may take._

And the hunt has bring them now to Arcadia Bay.

It had been around 10 minutes since the bluenette ("Chloe, her name was Chloe", because there's no way Cassie was going to forget a cute girl like that) carried then into town, leaving the pair near the local motel where they were right now sharing a room after dealing with an inquisitive look from the receptionist.

"So... wHat nOw?", asked Vlad.

"I called Cat and the rest of our things should be here by tomorrow"

"AnD tHe Van?"

Cassie shook her head, "Torn apart. No way to fix it... It seems we're going to need a new set of wheels, Vlad. I'm sorry, I know how much you liked that van"

"It hAd sPaCe, goOD foR rEstiNg"

The loss of the van had been a small kick in the balls. It had withstood explosions, collisions, impossible jumps, magical bullshit... Apparently, running over a slasher on their last job in Portland had been too much for the old thing.

"Now, it's time to snoop around as usual. We know of two suspicious deaths that can be the work of a slasher if the description of the bodies Cat got is true"

The data their friend (Cat Curio, intrepid detective) had obtained had instinctively set off the alarms in Cassie's head. Two teenagers murdered in a lonely place? Okay... tragic, but not special. The work of any bastard, maniac or similar.

Murdered with deep chest wounds and internal burns that have roasted all the organs and liquefied the eyes? That was more eye-catching.

"MorGUe vISit?"

"To begin with. And the usual patrols. We'll start at the place where the kids were found dead and move towards the center of town"

"WhAt aBOut tHe AcaDeMY?"

Cassie nodded, "Blackwell is a teenage nest. Perfect hunting ground for slashers. Depending on how things go, I may have to sneak in"

"As A sTuDEnt aGAin?" asked Vlad with a smile, "I cOuLd go bACk tO bEiNg a foOtBAll pLaYEr liKe tHe lAst tiMe. It Was fUn"

Cassie smiled slightly, "I look fabulous but it's starting to be hard to get by as a 25-year-old high school girl in these situations. Guess I'll try something else"

"Aw, sO no mORe cheErleADing?"

"Hell, I hope not. Besides, that's only when there are zombies... Who knows. Maybe I'll try the young teacher's act this time if Cat can arrange the right documentation"

She stood up and took the baseball bat out of the old backpack she carried with her. The words **KISS IT** engraved on the old and reliable wood.

"Well, it's night time. What do you say we go see some dead people?"

Vlad smiled, putting on his mask, "HuRn, yEs"

They left the motel and made their way into the darkness of the still-young night. If there really was a slasher in Arcadia Bay people should be afraid to walk alone.

If there really was a slasher in Arcadia Bay, he or she should be afraid of Cassandra Hack.


	4. Vision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There may be a little mood whiplash in this scene but I'm of the opinion that after all the things they've been through, Max and Chloe have cultivated a healthy "no more fucks given" attitude. Oh, they worry and still deal with trauma, but they don't let life's shit keep them from seeing the good stuff.

Chloe Price walked into her Arcadia Bay apartment with a smile on her lips. Yes, things had improved in her relationship with her mother and David, but the sad reality is that it was impossible for Chloe Price and David Madsen to live together for long under the same roof before it all resulted in the domestic equivalent of nuclear meltdown.

So finally having a place for her, a place of her own, was hella good. Even better, sharing it with Max.

Speaking of which...

"Maxaroni! I'm home!"

Silence.

Okay, that was weird. The usual would have been for Max to run to meet her with a hug and a kiss. Maybe she had gone out to run some errands, but it was practically night and Max would have warned her if that was the case. With a slight restlessness, Chloe advanced to the living room.

Max was there, sitting on the couch with a cup of steaming tea in her hands. She was still, pale, and with a lost look, immersed in her thoughts.

Chloe approached carefully and sat down slowly next to her girlfriend. She placed a hand on her shoulder delicately.

"Max?"

Max turned her head to Chloe with a small wince. Tea almost spilled from the cup.

"Chloe! Ah... I... I'm sorry, I was with my head on other things"

Chloe took a closer look at the girl who was the person she knew best in the world. Max was not only pale but haggard, as if she had woken up from a bad dream.

"Has it been a nightmare again? It's been months since they gave you a hard time"

"I don't... I think... I think I've had some kind of vision"

Chloe felt a chill. Max's powers were still present, at least when she was in Arcadia Bay and surrounding areas, decreasing with longer distances. But Max had not had any vision since...

"Max... is the Storm again?"

Max shook her head.

"No, this was different, strange... it wasn't a vision of the future, it was something that's already happened"

Max looked up, fixing her gaze on Chloe's. Her blue eyes reflected sadness and fear.

"I saw the two boys... Wyatt Temple and Joshua Collins, who died last week... Chloe, I saw them killed"

"Oh God, Max..." Chloe said no more and hugged the other girl. Max's body was shaking, trying to hold back a sob.

"It's like I was there but I couldn't do anything, just look... and..."

"...did you see who did it?"

"I saw _what_ did it, Chloe... that wasn't human"

"Maybe it was just a nightmare, a very real one... that shit's been on the news all week"

"No, Chloe, I know what I saw was real, it wasn't just a dream"

Chloe sensed the change instantly. There it was, under the fear, nerves and trauma. The resolution. The will of steel. Max Caulfield had known of the existence of a problem and was going to solve it. Because Max was shy, withdrawn and full of doubts most of the time, but Chloe knew she was also the strongest person when the situation required it. Neither time nor space nor the universe had been able to break Max.

The blue haired girl couldn't avoid a slight smile despite the seriousness of the situation. There was her Mad Max, ready for anything.

"Ok, a vision then. A very fucked up one. And you tell me you've seen the killer and it's not a human being... and by your tone, I assume you're not referring to an animal or anything else natural"

Max shook her head, "I didn't see it clearly but... it was like a corpse, skinned and burned... I think her hair was flames"

"Her?", asked Chloe.

"The shape of the body... it was female"

"What you describe sounds almost like a ghost story. How the hell did you get a vision like that? This doesn't seem to have anything to do with what's usual for your powers"

"I have no idea"

"But you're gonna find out"

Max smiled. Chloe had never stopped hugging her and she wasn't shaking anymore. Her face had regained some color.

"I'm going to find out... Do you read my thoughts now, Chloe Price?"

"I don't know... maybe... Are you thinking of a blue-haired, tattooed beauty dancing in front of you wearing only almost transparent lingerie?"

"Mmmm, maybe now I do"

They kissed, first delicately, then more deeply, until they had to take a breath.

"Chloe... I'm scared", said Max.

"I know"

"But I don't want to be scared, I want to solve this, whatever it is"

"I know, and I'll be with you"

"But right now... right now it's late, we can save the worries for tomorrow. Could you help me with that?"

Chloe smiled, a roguish smile. Without a word she sat up holding Max in her arms, carrying her. The slim brunette couldn't help repressing a little "Eep!"

"Miss Caulfield, will you give me the honor of doing dirty things with you until your mind goes blank?," asked Chloe, with the most fake British accent ever.

Max laughed, the worry of the previous minutes finally leaving her "You're such a dork!"

"That's not an answer, milady. Didn't I say there'll be tongue involved?"

"Just take me to the bedroom already and we'll see who leaves whose mind blank, miss Price"

"Wowser"

Max smiled fondly, "That's my line"

Between laughter and the promises of a memorable night, the couple left behind for the moment the worries of the recent conversation. There would be time with the light of dawn to decide which way to go and how to face what would undoubtedly be another episode of the accumulation of strangeness surrounding Arcadia Bay.

They had earned a moment of happiness, the days to come were going to be very different.

 

 

*** * * * ***

 

Elsewhere...

_She could feel them, their love, like stabbings in her burned heart. She walked with her feet blackened and barefoot. Broken memories, rotten feelings, and hatred, burning hatred and rage. A desire for revenge that was not entirely hers but embraced because it was the perfect excuse to make them all burn. The forest of Arcadia Bay was behind her and she could now see the lights of the village. They shone but not as bright as she did. She had been bright. She would be again. Burning. Like the bleeding hearts she would hold in her charred hands._

The slasher walked into town.


	5. Night in Flames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, a warning for gore/intense stuff.

"Come on, man, we just need to take a short look"

A couple of calls from Cat to certain people had given Cassie and Vlad access to the Arcadia Bay morgue. At the time the duo was trying to convince the coroner to let them take a look on their own at one of the victims of last week's murder whose body was still at the facility.

"This is... very irregular"

"Look, dude... you've talked to your bosses"

"Yes"

"And our friend has talked to them and other interested people... they've told you who we are, haven't they?"

The coroner nodded nervously, "Y... yes, but it sounds weird as hell"

Cassie suppressed an irritated snort. There were always skeptics.

The truth is, at that point in their "careers", Cassie and Vlad were... notorious. Oh, they weren't famous in the conventional sense. You weren't going to see them on the breaking news or as guests on a talk show, but they were known to the people... proper. Years ago some friends of theirs launched a website to coordinate testimonies of survivors and victims of slashers. Cat maintained the website now and coordinated a network of contacts ranging from neighbors to law enforcement officers, local police and a few FBI members.

Cassie was convinced that she and Vlad had about half a dozen files in the FBI archives. Maybe even some in the CIA.

The thing is... they were allowed to operate. A vigilante couple wasn't something those controlling assholes normally liked, but the existence of slashers was an open secret that shouldn't be aired. And Cassie and Vlad were, at the time, the world's experts on dealing with slashers.

So they let them do, and if they had to ask for a favor so that the police and forensics in a small town would let them snoop around, it was done.

The coroner finally let them proceed.

Wyatt Temple's body was on the operating table, covered with a green sheet. He had been there for a week waiting to be picked up by his family, who seemed to be in no hurry.

Vlad uncovered the body while Cassie looked through the forensic examination.

"Mmm, vEry coOKeD"

Cassie raised an eyebrow. The body was in pretty good condition save for the absence of eyes in charred sockets and the hole in the chest surrounded by blackened flesh.

"These imbeciles have marked the chest orifice as the result of an attack with a hot blunt object"

"DoeSn't mAkE SeNSe. LoOk at tHe mArks"

"Yep buddy, same as in that guy from the case in Indiana", observed Cassie, "This was made with bare hands, we've got a strong one here"

"AnD tHe bURniNg?"

"Probably some supernatural or magical shit regarding fire"

"ThIs oNe is goINg tO be A paIn in ThE AsS. HaTe wHen tHey got pOWers"

Cassie folded her arms and sighed.

"Me too, dude. Me too"

"Now wHat?"

Cassie looked at her watch. It was almost midnight.

"It's still early," she said, "What do you say we take a look around Blackwell? Lots of teenagers sleeping or sneaking into each other's rooms"

"LeT's gO tHen"

 

* * * * *

 

Katherine Marsh suppressed a yawn while brushing her teeth in the shared baths of the Amber Dormitory (formerly called Prescott until everything that happened last year).

She had been studying late and lost track of time. On the one hand she was grateful for the silence at those hours and the solitude. Things had improved a lot after her problems the previous year, but despite her strengthened friendship with Max, Chloe, Dana and some of the other girls (even Victoria remained cordial but distant) a part of Kate could not help but appreciate the tranquility of not having to deal with other people from time to time.

For many to treat her as if she were a fragile porcelain figure, even with the best of intentions, could prove tiresome.

When she finished, Kate left the bathrooms to go to her room. The lights in the hallway were off but it was a clear moonlit night. That's why she could easily see the figure in the middle of the hallway, just a few steps from her bedroom door.

Kate stopped dead in her tracks. Was it another one of the girls? Sleepwalking? Maybe some kind of nocturnal joke? The female figure was standing motionless, but Kate felt eyes staring at her.

"Uhm... Dana? Is that you?"

The figure did not respond, only tilted her head slightly to the left.

"If... if this is some kind of joke, it's not funny," whispered Kate.

The figure took a step forward. Kate recoiled instinctively.

" **Where?** "

It was a young, feminine voice, but to Kate's ears it sounded like the grunt of an animal. She felt a chill running down her back.

Suddenly the head of the figure in the shadows burst into flames, as if a mane of fire surrounded it, illuminating the corridor.

" **WHERE?** " it shouted. A voice of fury and hate, like a demon.

Kate Marsh ran, towards the exit.

 

* * * * *

 

Alex Jenkins had been a Blackwell's pupil, not one of the very good ones, but decent enough to get a job as a part of the school security team. Old Madsen may have been a pain in the ass as a boss but the job paid decent and wasn't that hard. Blackwell used to be quiet and it wasn't much of an effort to walk around a couple of times at night with his flashlight.

Nothing ever happened.

That's why he was quite surprised when the entrance doors to the Amber Dormitory suddenly opened and one of the resident girls, barefoot and dressed only in soft yellow pajamas, ran out in a clear state of panic, almost crashing into him.

Alex recognized Kate Marsh. The girl had been sadly famous last year for her suicide attempt and for being one of the confirmed victims of that shit that the Prescott kid and that psycho teacher had done.

"Hey! Hey! Easy!"

Kate looked at him, her pupils dilated in panic.

" _Fuck, she's terrified. What happened?_ "

Although she had stopped for a moment, Kate seemed about to run away again. Alex raised his hand in a gesture that he hoped would calm her down.

"Shhh, easy Miss Marsh, it's all right, tell me what..."

He could not finish the sentence because at that moment he felt the heat, the light of the fire and the noise of the doors opening behind his back.

Alex turned and was speechless because of what was before him. A girl who could be naked if it weren't for the obvious remnants of carbonized cloth stuck to her body, a burned and skeletal face bathed by the flames that fell on her shoulders like hair.

The apparition grunted in rage and jumped up, grabbing Alex Jenkins' face, plunging her claws into the soft flesh, her thumbs into his eyes. The smell of burning was intense and instantaneous. Jenkins could not scream before he died and fell to the ground with his head smoking.

Kate Marsh, who had fallen to the ground paralyzed by terror and slowly crawled towards one of the garden benches, did scream.

The _thing_ turned towards her and advanced slowly.

Kate felt the bench on her back. Everything about her shouted at her to run away but her legs were failing, trembling. She closed her tearful eyes and prayed, thinking of her family, her friends, her pet bunny Alice, waiting for the fiery touch of that monster.

Kate could feel the heat of the flames and their brightness. The thing had to be right in front of her, extending her arms and...

A scream of rage.

No, a _battle cry_.

Kate opened her eyes just as she felt the air of a body moving over her in a leap.

In front of her, shielding her from the flaming monster, there was now an enormous figure, a mountain of muscle encased in a long black coat. His outstretched arms held enormous butcher knives.

"HuRn... jUst iN tiMe"

And without further ado, Vlad threw himself against the slasher, cutting with his blades.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We got a cliffhanger! And relax, I know you'd rip my head off if anything really happened to Kate.


	6. We Didn't Start the Fire

At about the same time Kate Marsh had a terrifying encounter in the hallways of Blackwell's dormitories, Cassie and Vlad were at the doors of the student center after their visit to the morgue, planning a night patrol. So they had no problem hearing Kate's scream of terror a few moments later.

"Vlad!"

"I'm oN iT!"

They both started the race to the dorms at the same time, but one thing you should know about Vlad is that despite his size he is an incredibly fast and agile individual. That's why he didn't take long to take the lead and that's why he was the first to get between Kate Marsh and the slasher. The giant of a man threw himself head-on and fearlessly against the undead murderer. His arms threw powerful cuts and his butcher knives whistled in the air. The slasher recoiled, almost as if surprised, shielding herself with her arms. Wherever Vlad cut, blackish blood sprinkled on the ground. The slasher stopped retreating and cried out in rage. She threw herself forward, ignoring the steel blades cutting off the air in front of her, and extended her right arm toward Vlad's face, her hand wrapped in brilliant flames.

Vlad leaned to his right with unexpected agility avoiding direct contact with the flaming hand. Still, the heat released by it was such that he could feel the plastic of his mask melting. Repressing a grunt of pain, Vlad struck with his left and his knife sank into the forehead of the slasher, causing her to retreat a few steps.

The slasher looked dazed. She staggered and tried to grab the blade sunken in her skull but seemed unable to coordinate her movements sufficiently.

Vlad took advantage of the brief breath to turn to the young woman he had protected. The girl wore only one pair of pajamas and looked terrified.

"MiSs!"

Kate Marsh's eyes, until that moment fixed on the monstrous flaming figure that had tried to kill her, turned to her savior.

"TrY tO rUn toWarDs tHe bUIldiNg, Will yOu?"

Kate nodded, getting up and rushing to the dorm doors.

Unfortunately, at that precise moment the slasher finally managed to cling to the handle of the knife on her forehead and pull it out of her skull, dropping it on the ground in a pool of black, smoking blood. With a scream of rage, she struck with her arm in the direction of Kate. The air seemed to ripple for a few moments in front of the slasher as a sharp, whistling sound stuck in the ears of everyone present. The hot air exploded and something that could only be described as a ball of fire flew toward Kate Marsh, who was a few meters from entering the building.

Fortunately, Vlad was fast once again.

With a powerful leap the giant grabbed Kate Marsh by throwing the two of them to the ground and spinning in such a way that his back was the only thing that received a semi-direct impact from the flames.

At that moment, fallen on the ground but unharmed and with that man shielding her with a smoking back and the slasher preparing another attack, Kate could hear another battle cry.

Although this one was a little more picturesque.

"Hey, Fucking flaming motherfucker!!"

The slasher turned to instantly receive the direct impact of a baseball bat on her face. The force of the blow was such that the slasher fell to the ground.

Cassie Hack was standing in front of her, with the smoking piece of wood in her hands and a hungry wolfish smile on her lips.

"Up yours!"

The slasher leapt up against Cassie as if propelled by a spring, only to receive a new bat strike to the head.

Cassie proceeded to advance without quarter, stringing blow after blow to her opponent's skull. The slasher stumbled backwards, hitting blindly and letting out small, weak flames, too disoriented to carry out a forceful attack.

 

* * * * *

 

A few feet away, Vlad's mask fell to the ground.

The heat had melted the plastic around the straps and Kate Marsh could finally see the face of her savior. In the last minutes, the young woman had felt as if she were in a nightmare vigil. It was a sensation she sadly knew well, albeit under very different circumstances and without the intensity of adrenaline and pure terror running in her veins.

And yet, the vision before her right now gave her peace of mind.

The face she could now see without a gas mask was not a graceful face. In truth, it was intimidating and malformed. It could be said that it was monstrous and even bestial. The grimace of pain on Vlad's face from burns to his back did not help. But Kate was no longer afraid. Not when he stared at her.

His eyes were _kind_.

The sound of wood beating flesh spun her head and this time her eyes rested on a very different scene.

The monster, the rotten burning thing that had killed that guard and attempted to kill her, was being beaten. The young woman responsible for it was wearing an outfit that would otherwise have made Kate blush. But at the time the image Kate had before her didn't make her really think of young women in inappropriate dress. What was in front of her, that girl hitting the monster again and again, made Kate think of a righteous warrior. A protector of innocents.

Vlad's voice brought her out of her amazement.

"MiSs, aRe yOu aLL riGHt?"

Kate turned again to those blue eyes that had calmed her. She nodded nervously.

"If yOu cAn, foLLoW tHe plAn of bEfoRe. Go iNto tHe BuiLdiNg, yOu'll bE saFe"

Vlad got up and helped her up. Before crossing the gates Kate turned one last time to see how her savior ran towards the young woman and the creature, knives in hand again.

 

* * * * *

 

During her continuing assault, Cassie could see lights beginning to come on in some of the dormitory windows.

" _Shit, we don't need curious kids turned into potential victims, we have to finish this fast but this bitch is tough_ "

The slasher must have reached the limit of her patience. With a scream of rage, the undead creature covered her entire body in a burst of flame. Cassie leapt back. The fire had not touched her but the air, suddenly warmed by the flames of the slasher, formed a painful bubble of heat.

And her baseball bat was on fire.

"Fucking hell!"

Something metallic passed whistling beside her head and sank into the chest of the slasher, it was one of Vlad's knives.

"CasSaNdRA!"

Cassie jumped out of the way just as her partner fully charged the slasher and made her fly several meters through the air.

Cassie stood next to Vlad, her bat increasingly resembling an improvised torch.

"Any ideas, big guy?"

"CuTs dON't do aNytHIng"

"Yes, she seems to heal every time she's wrapped in fire."

"I hATe it wHen tHeY haVe pOwERs liKe tHat"

Cassie dropped the bat on the floor, carrying her hands to her backpack.

"It's like a kick in the balls, but I guess if we slash hard enough maybe we can cut something off"

She pulled a machete.

"Let's see how this feels"

Cassandra Hack ran against the slasher. The undead assassin repeated the blow in the air from before, this time generating a tongue of fire that spread towards Cassie. The girl dodged it with an almost acrobatic leap and placed one of her feet on one of the benches, pushing herself into the air. With a scream she fell against the slasher, hitting so hard that the machete cut off the right arm of the supernatural killer. The piece of smoking flesh fell to the ground with a thud. The cry of rage and pain of the slasher flilled the night.

A couple of security guards arrived at that time, as heads of curious students peered out of the windows.

The cut arm of the slasher melted to ashes as a tongue of fire grew from its stump, reforming the flaming arm. With a scream of rage the creature... _exploded_.

Where the slasher had been before there was now a wall of expanding fire and a blow of air. Cassie Hack fell backwards, fortunately with only slight burns on her arms with which she had shielded her face. The fire dissipated, being for a few moments a fiery column before disappearing.

The only trace on the ground were faint footprints in ash. Cassie knew instinctively that they had only managed to force a momentary retreat. That thing would go back to its usual ways soon.

As Vlad helped her get up, one of the security guards, a middle-aged man with a moustache, approached them with a firm step but an expression of disbelief and contained panic.

"What the fuck was that, missy!?"

He seemed to try to impose some authority on his voice, but there was a noticeable nervous tremor behind it.

Cassie just raised an eyebrow and sighed . It seemed like it was time to invent some bullshit. 

Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, longest chapter yet!
> 
> Next time we are getting back to Max and Chloe. Finally the partners in time will start getting more involved in this events.


	7. Pricefield Investigations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Max and Chloe are back!  
> A little slice of life and hopefully a few doses of fluff before things get serious again.
> 
> PS: And yes, pervs, the two of them are completely nude throughout their talk in this chapter.

Max Caulfield had long ago determined that waking up a saturday morning with the person you love was one of the nicest things in the world.

Even if the person in question was hugging you like a bear trap, using your breasts as a pillow and filling them with drool as she snores softly with her mouth open.

Of course she didn't care about that, really. Max just gently stroked Chloe's hair as she watched her sleep. Immersed in her slumber, Chloe looked more calm than she had been in a long time. After all the problems they had faced (the Storm, the time travel shenanigans, the conspiracies of the Prescotts, etc.), last year had been little less than a blessing for both of them, but especially to Chloe. The anger, rage, loss and pain had not yet completely disappeared (introducing Nathan Prescott or Mark Jefferson as subjects of conversation was a good way to seriously piss off the bluenette) but no longer governed her day-to-day.

Under the layer of hardness and punk sarcasm, Max had seen how day by day the joyful, lively and curious girl that Chloe had been in her childhood resurfaced. Yeah, she still had... attitude. But she also tried to control her anger more, she tried to be less likely to jump to hasty conclusions and misunderstandings, to consider more other people' positions and not always be on the defensive, to stop dodging responsibilities and blaming others for her own problems. Although The Endless Week (as Max called it) had been the turning point, Chloe had gradually matured throughout the year, slowly becoming the young adult she would have been if life had not decided to crap on her for five years.

She had resumed her studies, preparing for the GED through online classes. It was going to be Max's last year at Blackwell, and college was obviously the next step and Chloe had no intention of letting her girlfriend make that journey alone. Studies weren't the only aspect that Chloe was reorganizing in her life. She had recently gotten a part-time job at a record store and had just returned from an interview for a possible job in Portland as an in-practice tattoo artist.

A gentle yawn and slight movement signaled to Max that Chloe had just woken up. A pair of sleepy blue eyes found another pair more awake looking back.

"Mmmm... good morning"

"Good morning sleepyhead", Max said with a smile, "Sweet dreams?"

Chloe smiled and slightly raised her head. A mischievous smirk was drawn on her face, "Well, yes, though not as sweet as the fun before sleep"

"Perv"

"And you love it", her face suddenly became serious, concerned, "And you? No more bad dreams... SuperMax?"

Max shook her head gently, "No, luckily... all the rest of the night without dreams." The brunette moved to put her face on the same level as Chloe's, giving her a gentle kiss on the lips, "Something I suppose I have to thank you for, if only for leaving me exhausted"

"I aim to please, but you're not far behind either... I think my legs are still tingling"

Max laughed, but abruptly stopped herself, "Oh shit, with that dream yesterday and everything else I didn't ask you how you did in the job interview!"

"It went well... I think"

"You think?"

"Well, they said they want me for another interview in two weeks. If they weren't interested, I think they would have already kicked me out, so..."

"I'm so glad for you," Max said, "And those guys would be morons if they didn't recognize your talent, I mean, you just have to look at your tattoo!"

Chloe's response was another kiss, gentle at first, more intense after a few moments, "Thank you Max". The two fell into a comfortable silence, although Max could not help but notice that Chloe seemed to have her gaze strangely fixed on her lips, as if thinking deeply.

"Chloe?"

"Mmm?"

"Do I have something on my lips?"

"Ah! No, no... it's just...", the blue-haired girl gave her girlfriend a curious look, "What would you say about using black lipstick?"

"Black lipstick? How come?"

"Ah, it was just an idea... you see, on the way to Arcadia yesterday I brought two hitchhikers to the town and one of them was this bombshell of a girl with gothic rock looks that used black lipstick and... Well, it looked fucking good and I thought, wow, I'm sure my Max would also look fucking amazing with that... and.... Well, that's it."

Max raised an eyebrow, "Bombshell of a girl? Should I be jealous?"

"What? No! It's nothing like that, Max"

"It's just that for a moment you sounded soooo enraptured", said Max with a mischievous smile.

"Dude, you'd be gawking too if you saw her! Seriously, my most revealing looks would seem modest next to what that girl was wearing"

"Damn, now you leave me curious, that sounds like a genuine achievement"

"They said they were here for work, maybe we'll see them around"

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the sound of a hungry stomach.

"Oops," Chloe said.

"It seems after all last night's exercise it's time to recharge."

"We can take a shower and go have some breakfast with my mom...", there was a slight pause, "Hey, Max"

"Yes?"

"That dream... vision... whatever it was last night... what are we going to do?"

"I don't know... I don't have classes today so we have time to think about what to do. I know it's not great, but... I don't know Chloe, I don't want to get in trouble but I don't think I can just let this go by and do nothing"

"That's my Max... Well, I guess it'll be time to reopen Pricefield Investigations"

"Pricefield Investigations? Seriously?"

"Hey, it's a good name for our dynamic duo that brings fear to the heart of crime!"

"I think I prefer The Blackwell Ninjas"

"Nope, we are no longer ninjas, we are now private investigators, Maxippe Marlowe. We're gonna go hella noir"

"Dork"

"And... where would we start?"

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look near the old mill, where those kids died"

"Investigating the crime scene, makes sense"

"It may not be worth much, I have no clue where to start, but maybe we'll find something that the police have overlooked... at least I have a slight idea of what the killer is like", said Max.

"I can get us to the site, I know it from before... we could go in the afternoon if nothing else comes up"

Suddenly they were interrupted by a phone call. Max stretched out her arm to pick up her mobile phone from the bedside table. It was a call from Kate. It seemed that there were also several dozen messages that had arrived throughout the night and much of the early morning that she had not noticed.

" _Wowser! What must have happened? I hope nothing serious_ "

Despite that thought, Max couldn't help but feel some concern as she answered the call.

"Kate? Yes... I'm already awake, I just saw your messages, I'm sorry that...", there was a pause where Chloe could hear the murmur of Kate Marsh's alarmed voice as Max suddenly paled, "What!? No, Katie... we're going to be right there... Wait, what did you say she looked like?"

This time, an increasingly nervous Chloe could see the shadow of fear on Max's face, "If you... I understand... Katie, relax. Chloe and I are on our way. See you soon."

Max finished the call, "Chloe..."

Chloe placed her hands on Max's shoulders and brought the petite girl closer to herself with a hug.

"Tell me what happened, Max."

" Someone attacked Kate last night in Blackwell. She's fine, but a security guard has been killed and..."

Max looked at Chloe, her gaze a mixture of fear and determination.

"Chloe... the description Kate just gave me... her attacker is the killer I saw in my vision"

It seems that now Pricefield Investigations knew where to start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the next chapter, we'll have a meeting with Kate. Max and Chloe will also know about her mysterious saviors.


	8. Pray for the monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Conversation time/recap with Kate. Max & Chloe are officially on the case!

Now, early that Saturday morning and after finally getting in touch with Max, Kate was still thinking about everything that had happened.

It had been the second longest night of Kate Marsh's life after last year's events. Unable to sleep after answering questions from security guards and police officers, Kate had spent much of the early morning trying to contact the person she trusted most in all of Arcadia Bay. Dana, Juliet and the other girls in the dorms had kept her company for the first few hours. Even Victoria seemed to have shown slight glimpses of concern. The atmosphere was tense. Blackwell had been the scene of uncomfortable events in the past but few as gruesome as last night's murder. The young woman was certain that the scene she had witnessed would accompany her in her nightmares for some time.

And yet... every time the flames and that disgusting smell of burnt flesh flooded her mind, it was enough for her to remember her savior's kind blue eyes looking at her and that female figure fighting the monster to perhaps not feel peace, but to gain some calm.

She kept going around all these thoughts as she sat on the stairs at the entrance to the dorms. She could see the police tape around where the dead guard's body had been, the burns on the floor still visible, the chalk marks of the cops...

"Kate!"

Looking up, Kate saw Max running towards her from the Blackwell main courtyard area. Chloe followed her closely, a few steps back, and visibly more exhausted. Kate smiled slightly. It was an open secret that despite being in good physical shape, Chloe Price did not mesh very well with athletics.

Kate stood up when Max arrived next to her and let herself be wrapped in the embrace of the other young woman. Max was, without a doubt, her best friend in Blackwell. She was her rock. The person who had saved her from making the most terrible mistake of her life.

Another pair of arms wrapped them both at the same time in a bear hug. Chloe had arrived.

Kate didn't know much about Chloe when they first met. Only that she had been a Blackwell's pupil, that she had been expelled and that among the students who knew her she had a reputation for being a troublemaker, problematic, aggressive, involved in drug problems... And even if those things were true, Kate had not taken long to see much more of Chloe Price through her friendship with Max. In the weeks following the resolution of the whole Jefferson and Prescott fiasco, Max wasn't the only one who had been with Kate as support. Chloe had also been present, engaging in a curious friendship with the shy girl. Chloe tended to be sarcastic and aggressive, but she showed a much softer side with Max... and also with Kate. In a different way, of course. Kate could see the romantic relationship between the two girls almost from day one. And she was genuinely happy for them. After all the dark days she had gone through it was comforting to see a glimmer of human light. She didn't care what the Church officially said about it. Kate Marsh's heart was too big to deny other people the right to love each other.

And so, while Chloe's affection for Max was clearly romantic in nature, the affection she had developed for Kate over the past year was rather fraternal. The blue-haired girl had basically "adopted" the young Marsh as an honorary sister.

"How are you feeling, Cinnamon Bun?"

That implied nicknames, of course.

"Better... still a little scared, but better now that you're here... Oh, Max, Chloe! It's been a horrible night, for a moment I thought..."

"Ssshh, ssshh, Kate, easy," said Max, hugging her again, "Let's talk about it, okay? Having some tea to calm the nerves, all right?"

Kate nodded and the three went to her room. Max offered to make tea but Kate insisted on preparing it herself to keep her mind occupied. Chloe, for her part, spent a few entertaining moments playing with Alice, Kate's pet rabbit, feeding her a few baby carrots.

With the tea ready, the three of them sat down to talk. Max and Kate with one cup each, Chloe with a soda.

Kate started her story. She told them how she had been awake until late, how returning to her room from the bathrooms she had seen the attacker in the hallway, just in front of the door of Max's old room that was opposite hers.

"That's... worrying," Max said. Chloe nodded in agreement, frowning.

"Before... Before she came for me, she shouted something: Where?"

Worrying indeed.

Kate continued her story, describing the creature that had attacked her in as much detail as possible. Max listened attentively, already knowing very well the appearance of the murderer but deciding not to worry Kate more than she should with the story of her vision.

When Kate got to the part about the security guard's murder and the arrival of her rescuers, Chloe jumped.

"Shit... Katie, were they a huge guy with some kind of gas mask and a gothic woman with very, veeeery provocative clothes?"

Kate nodded, puzzled, "Yes... Do you know them?"

Chloe turned to Max, "It's Cassie and Vlad, Max... the hitchhikers I picked up yesterday afternoon.... Fuck, they told me they were working as exterminators."

Max shook her head, thoughtfully, "If they are, I don't think they're into the usual pests."

"Well, whoever they are, I owe them my life... I'd like to see them again to thank them properly."

"What happened next, Kate?", asked Max.

"Well, the big man... hum... Mr. Vlad shielded me from one of the attacks and gave me time to get back into the building and be safe. I didn't see the rest of the fight, but by the time Mr. Madsen and the police talked to me my rescuers were gone."

From the little Kate had managed to find out Cassie and Vlad had had a tense talk with David Madsen, Blackwell's head of security and Chloe's stepfather, until the first police officers arrived at the scene. Apparently the police seemed to know them from before or knew who they were and had let them go after a few calls to their superiors.

"That's... odd," Chloe observed.

"They seem to have some kind of contact with the police."

"Could they be bounty hunters or something?" asked Kate.

"Or rather ghostbusters!"

"Ghostbusters?" Kate muttered.

"Well... yes. That thing resembles some kind of fire spirit. Or a fire elemental, like Steph had in her D&D manual."

"Chloe, this is serious..."

"I'm being hella serious, Maximus! Come on... A thing that looks like a walking corpse wrapped in flames and controls fire? This is some spooky shit and I don't think it's some kind of Scooby Doo type crap."

"Well," said Kate, "What do we do now?"

"You... you're going to stay here. Talk to Dana and stay with her in her room. I think it's better that you're not alone after this," said Max.

Kate nodded, taking one last sip of tea, "What about you two?"

Max and Chloe looked at each other. Chloe nodded, as if responding to a wordless message from Max.

"We're going to snoop around, Katie-bear," said the bluenette, "We're going to take a look at the old mill, we think the two kids killed there were the first victims of that thing."

"And if we're lucky we might meet the two good Samaritans who helped you," Max added, "I think they know a lot about this and could give us answers."

With their decisions made, Max and Chloe left the dorms after saying goodbye to Kate and making sure Dana would keep her company for the rest of the day.

Kate saw them leave.  She prayed briefly for her friends, so that they could find out what was going on and so that they would not be in danger. She prayed for the poor dead security guard and for his soul. And she prayed for her saviors from the night before.

With the memory of Cassie Hack tirelessly assaulting the murderer dancing around her head, Kate Marsh almost felt the urge to pray for the monster.


	9. Crisis Crossover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter yet! It was necessary to do justice to this encounter. Another chapter fundamentally of dialogue, but the action will soon return.

"Dude, I have very ambivalent memories of this place."

For Chloe Price, the old mill was a location she knew well. It had been the scenery of one of the best moments of her life and one of the most tense and dangerous. This was the place where she had met Rachel Amber. It was also the place where she had a dangerous encounter with the local drug lord, Damon Merrick, while trying to rescue Rachel's biological mother. Some of the memory was still unreal, but the blow to the head courtesy of Damon surely had something to do with it.

The old mill was as always at the edge of the forest. Half burned by the forest fire three years ago, most of the structure had remained standing with surprising solidity. No one had claimed the site or demolished the old building to reuse the land. The old mill was still there abandoned like a ghost, a pile of old memories and past echoes. There would be no more clandestine concerts in that place. Chloe was invaded by a strange feeling of nostalgia that made her scowl.

"Chloe?"

The blue-haired woman turned to her partner. Max looked at her inquisitively. Chloe shook her head slightly.

"It's nothing Max. Just memories.

She raised her arms and stretched out like a cat, suppressing a yawn, "Well, where do we start, SuperMax?"

Max smiled slightly and with a gesture of her head she motioned Chloe to follow her.

They reached a few meters to the left of the main entrance of the mill.

"My vision started more or less here," Max explained, "So...," she pointed to the opposite corner of the building that was closest to the trees, "that's where the bodies must have been found".

The two young women advanced to the position indicated by Max. Immediately Chloe was struck by the seemingly natural look of the place. A week had passed and the police had already poked around, but it was still a crime scene and there was not the slightest trace of police tape or any kind of signal to indicate it. Weird.

The floor was blackened and parched, and both were able to recognize traces of ash similar to those left at the scene in Blackwell.

Max shuddered with a sudden chill.

"It happened here," she said, "I didn't see how she killed the first but I did see the second, or at least I saw a little before I woke up screaming."

Chloe crouched down, looking at the burns closer. She was struck by how some of the marks seemed to move away from the trees. Almost like footprints. At that very moment, with Chloe distracted, Max heard a slight noise coming from inside the mill.

You see, Max isn't perfect, she's got her flaws. And one of her most serious flaws is that she tends to be... nosy. There is no malice in it, just a mere instinct of curiosity that on more than one occasion has reached either dangerous or at least socially uncomfortable levels.

That's why she went away without warning Chloe and almost without making any noise towards the door of the mill to see what that sound was.

Meanwhile, Chloe had leaned forward a little bit. There was a central "burn," smaller ones that seemed to mark a trail into the forest, but another that seemed to lead to a hole in the wall of the building a few steps ahead....

"Fuck Max, I think that thing came from inside..."

Chloe turned around and realized she was alone. Standing up in a jump and repressing a profanity, she began to look in all directions, "Max? Max!"

" _Shit, she's doing the Nancy Drew snooping around all by herself again, and I've told her it's dangerous."_

That's when she heard a short frightened scream from inside the mill.

It was Max's voice.

Without a word, Chloe Price ran into the mill faster than she had ever run in her life.

 

* * * * *

 

Fate had wanted Cassie Hack and Vlad to arrive a few minutes earlier than the girls at the old mill, once again thanks to the art of hitchhiking.

"WEll... iT's bUrNEd," said Vlad looking inside the site which in the past had been a sort of makeshift bar. Another gas mask, somewhat older than the previous one, covered his face again.

"Amazing observation of the obvious Vlad"

"WhAt dO we eXpeCT tO fiNd hEre, CaSsIe?"

"If I'm being honest with you I don't think so much...", Cassie replied scratching her head, "But it's still the first place with a confirmed performance by the slasher, so there's got to be some connection."

Vlad moved slowly and carefully. Though the place was still standing and more whole than seemed to be expected, the crunching of the wood beneath his feet signaled fragility, at least to someone of his corpulence.

"ThAt haLf-ruInEd wAlL oVerLoOkiNg tHe oUtsiDe... tHoSe bURns loOk moRe rEceNt," he said.

Cassie nodded, "She came out of here... I don't understand, was she buried here? And for how long?"

The mechanics behind the return from the grave of some slashers was not an exact science. For some it was almost instantaneous, others took weeks or months, even years. An unusually high number seemed to have a yearning to return from death on some kind of anniversary or particular date.

Vlad wanted to get closer to one of the walls that seemed to be full of marks and old paintings, the wood crunching again under his feet. A few seconds later he heard the door at the entrance to the mill open slowly followed by a few quiet, light steps.

Vlad and Cassie looked at each other silently and utterly immobile. They were not alone. Being the closest to the door and the entrance section of the mill, Vlad stuck to the fragile wall and wielding his knife waited patiently to see who crossed the threshold from the first room to the one they were in.

It didn't take long for him to get his answer. The intruder was a young, petite, slender woman with brown hair. As soon as she crossed the threshold, she noticed the presence of Vlad right next to her. The image of a giant man wrapped in dark clothes, a gas mask and a huge knife in his hand triggered a predictable reaction.

Max Caulfield gave a brief panic cry.

 

* * * * *

 

It may have been for lack of use for almost a year, but Max didn't even think to rewind time when she found herself face to face with a threatening-looking stranger.

So she just screamed in fear, and tried to turn and run away. The scream went well, but her second action resulted in an alarmed step back, stumbling on her own feet and falling on her ass to the ground.

" _Clumsiness mine, I curse you_ "

She had barely touched the ground when the mill door slammed open and Chloe entered running and shouting at the top of her lungs, "LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU SONS OF... Oh, it's you guys!"

Max looked at Chloe, then at the giant, and again at Chloe, perplexed.

"Chloe, what...?"

Her girlfriend came over and helped her up, "Max, fuck, you have to stop doing these Lone Ranger stunts."

Max merely pointed at the giant man with a look halfway between curiosity and alarm.

"Ah," Chloe said, "This is Vlad... he's one of the guys I brought into town yesterday... Kate's savior, remember?"

"Why does he have a butcher's knife?"

"WoRk", he said.

Because that answered everything, without a doubt.

A faint cough caught the attention of the three of them. Cassie Hack watched the scene in front of her with her arms folded. On the one hand she felt a certain irritation, because having "civilians" involved rarely ended well. On the other hand the moment had been genuinely funny. And to see again the blue-haired beauty they had known yesterday appear behind the other girl was a plus.

When the three pairs of glances turned to her, the one of the petite (and also surprisingly cute, noticed Cassie) newcomer opened with surprise.

Now, it must be made clear that Max Caulfield loved Chloe Price wholeheartedly. It was an **universal truth**. Zero doubts.

But Max Caulfield was still a young lady with eyes. And hormones. And... _damn_.

" _Shit... Chloe wasn't exaggerating... ah, black lipstick, I see_."

Cassandra Hack, unsuspected Casanova.

Cassie ignored Max's gaze and focused on Chloe, "It's not that I'm not happy to see you, I'm still grateful for yesterday's favor, but... What the fuck are you doing here?"

Chloe responded by imitating Cass's cross-armed pose and raising her chin, defiantly, "I could ask you the same thing, because exterminators like you told me you're not, are you?"

"Well, we're exterminators... of something more complicated."

Max raised his hand shyly, as if asking permission to speak in a classroom, "Something complicated like living pyrokinetic female corpses?"

For a brief moment Cassie seemed impressed, "Well, you seem quite well informed."

"The girl you saved last night, Kate, is a friend...", said Chloe.

"Well, I'm glad I helped," answered Cassie, "But you shouldn't be around when there's a slasher loose, it's not safe."

"Slasher?" asked Max, "Is that what that thing is?"

Cassie stared at her, "Brief Lesson: Serial killers returned from the grave, hard to kill and with occasional special abilities to fuck up the life of others."

Max gulped. Chloe had been left slightly speechless, "Fuck."

"Damn right," said Cassie, "Look, girls, seriously, forget this and don't get involved anymore. I understand that you want to help if a friend of yours has been affected by this, but it's not safe, and I wouldn't want another pair of death corpses on my conscience.

"The problem is that I'm afraid we're already a little involved," Chloe explained, pointing out to Max, "This is Max, my girlfriend, and yesterday... well..."

"Yesterday I had a vision related to the killer."

Cassie raised an eyebrow, "A premonition? Are you like a seer or something?"

"Uh, not exactly... it wasn't a vision of the future, it was from a past fact: the murders that took place in this mill," Max said, "And the truth, it was more of a dream than a vision."

When Cassie heard the word dream she threw her head back and covered her face with her hands and snorted in frustration, "A dream... because the igneous powers wasn't enough... now you're going to tell me that this is also going to be one of those oneiric shit, fuck, whore daughter of a thousand motherfuckers..."

While Cassie seemed to fall into a downward spiral of coarse language, Max and Chloe merely looked at her perplexed. Chloe stared at Vlad and pointed at Cassie with a questioning gesture.

"BaD eXpeRieNCes wiTh drEaMs iN tHis jOb," said Vlad shrugging.

After a few moments, Cassie seemed to calm down, "Okay, well... Shit... dreams, let's hope things don't degenerate," then she turned back to Max, "Did the slasher interact with you in the dream in any way or did you just see the events?"

"Uh... just the second thing."

"Well, that's a relief. A shitty thing, but a relief," Max explained, "The shit about all this is that having some kind of vision related to these things is usually indicative that you have some kind of personal bond with the slasher."

"I have... I've had strange experiences recently in my life, but I can't think of anything that might have anything to do with it."

Chloe nodded, "Yeah, it's not the first time she's had a grim vision of doomy doom."

"Chloe!"

Cassie looked at them curiously, "Ah, no? Has it happened before?"

Max didn't answer, she just looked at Chloe slightly irritated. The blue-haired girl shrugged, "Better to tell them, SuperMax... it's no stranger than having to deal with supernatural killers, and maybe it'll convince them to let us help".

Max sighed, dropping her shoulders. She couldn't deny that Chloe was partly right. It was clear that she had seen what she had seen for some reason, and if anything tied her to the monstrous assassin, Max did not intend to stand idly by leaving others to face the danger alone.

So Max Caulfield took a deep breath and set her gaze on Cassie Hack, speaking more firmly than she really felt, "Last year I had a vision of a future happening, a disaster... it was the prelude to a series of events and... the awakening of my abilities"

"AbiLitiEs?" Vlad interrupted with a gentle tilt of his head, denoting curiosity.

Max nodded, "I can... rewind time. And do more things. I'm a human time machine."

There was silence.

Chloe placed her hand gently on Max's shoulder, for encouragement.

Vlad looked at her with wide eyes, with an almost childlike wonder glow in his gaze.

Cassie merely raised her eyebrows slightly.

"Oh... that's neat"


	10. Last Call of Fate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter starts lightly and ends ominously. The next one will start ominously and end... we'll see.

" _Oh... that's neat_ "

In the last year, Max had given a lot of thought to how people would react if they were told or discovered her power.

Reactions of disbelief, irritation, maybe fear, or mockery... She knew that acceptance at first was just a dream.

" _Oh... that's neat_ "

That is, even with Chloe she needed a whole series of stupid tests and games to fully convince her of her partial mastery over time. And while Chloe had accepted her powers with an almost childish (and somewhat irresponsible at first) enthusiasm, Max knew that other people would be more reluctant or worried about such a gift.

" _Oh... that's neat_ "

And so the only reaction she never anticipated was... indifference? No, Cassie's reaction was not indifference, it was acceptance. Pure acceptance. Without proof. Almost as if...

Almost as if the concept of time travel in the hands of a nineteen-year-old girl was normal to her.

Mundane.

Max thought she should be relieved that she didn't have to do some act to show off her powers. On the other hand, she couldn't help but feel a certain nervousness. Not fear... maybe. Just nerves.

And a little annoyance.

As always, it was Chloe's voice talking to Cassie that got her out of her self-absorption.

" Dude, you don't sound so surprised."

Cassie just looked at the two young women in front of her with a half smile on her lips. She began to count on the fingers of her right hand.

"One... I hunt undead psychopaths for a living."

Second finger.

"My mother was one of those undead psychopaths."

Third finger.

"The guy I lost my virginity to turned out to be a genocidal bastard."

Fourth.

"I've had to fight demon gods from another dimension. With tentacles.

Finally she lifted her last finger leaving her hand outstretched. With a nod she gestured to Vlad.

"And the ex of my friend here present is an exhibitionist extraterrestrial vampire."

Cassie folded her arms and stared back at Max, smiling.

"So yes... time travel sounds nice compared to my shit."

Max had been opening her eyes more and more with every point of Cassie's answer. She feared they would come out of their orbits. The black-haired woman kept looking at her with that irritating smile on those perfect lips that...

Oh, wow, put the brakes on.

Cassie kept looking at her with that irritating smile on those lips that weren't perfect at all, despite looking _very good_ with black lipstick. That's right.

At her side Chloe looked at each of them, as if she were the spectator of a duel. A little voice rang in the back of Max's head.

" _Come on, Max, say something. Answer. Or they'll think you're an idiot."_

"Oh... er... that's not neat."

" _Max, you're an idiot_."

"I mean...! The psychopaths and monsters with tentacles and such... And your mother's doesn't sound good either, although the vampire girlfriend thing seems interesting and... IthinkIwouldbettershutup," finished Max with a growing blush of shame on her cheeks.

Cassie chuckled and looked at Chloe.

"Where did you get her? She's too cute."

Chloe smiled back, "I rescued her from ruffians and invited her to join my pirate crew in elementary school."

Max blushed more and covered her face with her hands. Vlad had stepped to her side and was patting her gently on the back.

"I tHiNk iT's vEry aMaZiNg. HaVe yOu trAvELed to tHe olD WeSt tO mEet yoUr gReAt-gRanDpaREntS?"

Max shook her head, mumbling that it's not like Back to the Future. Chloe laughed. Cassie rolled her eyes.

After a few moments, they regained their composure.

"Well," said Cassie, "if you're going to be involved in this, we'd better keep you close, space-time powers or not."

"Yes!" Chloe raised her fist in a gesture of triumph. Cassie's expression became serious.

"Keep in mind that this is not a game. People have died. People are going to die before it's all over."

The Chloe of a year ago would have exploded with some sarcastic and confrontational response. The Chloe of today, the Chloe who had lived the Endless Week with Max, limited herself to nodding, her face also adopting an expression of seriousness and determination.

"It's not our first serious shit rodeo, sister."

Max nodded, "Last year, when my powers woke up... Well, it all got pretty complicated, and not necessarily in a  teen comedy way."

"What happened?"

"A disappearance and murder, a suicide attempt, a teacher who turned out to be a psychopath and to top it off a whole series of apocalyptic signs throughout the week that culminated in a storm that destroyed the entire village."

"Uh... I mAy nOt be veRy oBseRVant bUt tHe toWn iS sTill wHOle, isN't it?", asked Vlad.

Chloe hugged Max from behind.

"That's because my MiniMax here is a SuperMax and she fixed it all on her own. Well, with a little help of mine here and there, but mostly her."

Cassie could almost feel the affection that the two young women felt for each other as if it emanated from them in the form of waves of energy. Max continued the explanation.

"The Storm and the rest of the strange things that happened... Well, it was all part of a ritual," she said. "The Prescotts, a lousy rich local family that owns almost the entire town, were planning a... purification."

"Old Sean Prescott and his pop and grandpa had been playing with the mojo of artifacts that had belonged to the natives of the region," added Chloe.

Cassie's expression had become thoughtful, "Mmm, we should keep talking somewhere else. The truth is... this could be related...". The slasher huntress turned to her partner, "Vlad, I'm going back to the town with the girls. Are you staying here snooping around a bit more?"

"HuRm, yEs... I thiNk I saW soMe loOse boaRDs on tHe flOor beFoRe aNd I waNtEd tO taKe a loOk at tHeM".

"Well...", Cassie focused again on Max and Chloe, "I'm going with you, and you're going to tell me a little more about that Prescott guy."

"Uh... Why do you think it might have anything to do with what's going on right now," Max asked.

"Because we have a supernatural killer who seems to have some kind of personal mental psychic bond with you and you just told me about a family engaged in magical rituals that you thwarted."

Max paled slightly. Chloe raised her eyebrows, "Oh shit..."

Cassie nodded, "Exactly, it may be nothing or it may be everything... Does that Sean Prescott know it was you who screwed up his city remodeling plan?"

The two young women looked at each other with a slight guilty expression.

"Not directly, but..."

Max looked down. She squeezed Chloe's arm, which kept hugging her.

"His son... he blames us for his son's death."

The Storm had demanded a sacrifice, after all.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Near Arcadia Bay's beach, an old RV was parked.

Its owner was inside, in the stupor of drugs and guilt, isolated from the world. On the outside, lying in front of the door half-open, his dog rested.

The animal rose suddenly, frightened like only an animal that feels danger before it arrives could be. Its fur had become bristly and a grunt echoed from its throat.

When she appeared, the growl had become more and more a pitiful and terrified groan. The burning figure walked slowly and steadily towards the RV and the animal stepped aside and lay down again, his gaze fixed on her, paralyzed by terror.

The slasher stood in front of the door, next to the dog. She crouched...

... and a blackened flayed hand without flames or heat caressed the frightened animal gently on the head.

**"Shhh... good boy, good boy** "

The poor dog kept trembling.

The calm lasted only a moment. The slasher rose again.

Inside the RV, Frank Bowers was still oblivious to the last call of fate he was about to receive.


	11. And Frank Knew

There was a time when Frank Bowers had considered himself a good man.

Not a saint, of course. He lived off occasional jobs and the sale and distribution of drugs on a small scale. Including selling to Blackwell's dumb kids.

But he still thought of himself as a good man. He had cut ties with people who had become really twisted. He had even helped Chloe Price, as much as the girl was worse than a toothache. And Rachel..

Well, in the end it all came down to Rachel, didn't it?

Lying on the rickety bed of his RV, Frank had never stopped thinking about everything that had happened since his return to Arcadia Bay. I mean, selling drugs to those stupid kids, like that asshole Nathan Prescott, was one thing. Hey, you're selling drugs to high school kids Frank, that's bad. Fuck it, they're old enough, and they have rich parents, they can take good care of their own asses. It's all right.

That the same Prescott asshole used those drugs to knock out and overdose a girl you'd come to care about...

That's not all right. No sir.

As incidental as it was, being partially responsible for Rachel Amber's death had pretty much fucked Frank up inside. When Prescott and that professor, the pervert... Jefferson? When those two got caught and it was known overnight what they had been doing Frank took off to Portland. Fear, guilt, rage, sense of preservation, disgust... you could write a whole list of all the horrible things brewing inside Frank Bowers last year.

But guilt beat everything. And because of that, and many other things in retrospect, Frank Bowers no longer considered himself a good man.

He wasn't sure why he had returned to Arcadia. Sense of familiarity perhaps. In Portland he didn't really know anyone. The contacts there had always been Damon's thing and his dream of being a drug kingpin. Frank didn't give a shit about that. He just wanted his little corner. A small territory where he could place his shit, have more or less regular customers and not get into trouble with bigger groups. That was easy to get in Arcadia Bay. Although since his return there had been some changes in his routine...

For example, nothing more about selling to Blackwell's brats.

The wound was still open. And it could attract attention.

Like Price and her new girlfriend... the tiny one. Her name began with M... Mack? Max? Yes, it was Max.

Frank preferred to keep his distance. Yes, technically Chloe still owed him money but under the circumstances even he thought asking for it was a line he shouldn't cross.

And to be honest, Price's girlfriend freaked him out, although he would never admit it out loud.

He still remembered that encounter at American Rust, how that dead little fly of a girl pulled out a gun and pointed it at him without a second thought.

He still remembered how the girl didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. Yes, she trembled with fear and seemed insecure, but the little bitch would have killed him if the gun was loaded, for fuck's sake.

He had gotten a bit rough on them asking Chloe for the money, to scare them, but that didn't mean he had earned a bullet. But despite trembling like a terrified animal Frank could see that the girl had not wavered. He saw it in her eyes.

That's what scared him. That's why it was better to keep distance. Frank had met people like that before. Fuck, Damon had been like that when they were kids, before going full crazy.

Those type of quiet, shy people. It seems that you could pass over them as if they were nothing, throw all kinds of abuse on them just to see how they shrink in fear... And suddenly... BLAM! It's like you're hitting a wall of willpower. And the wall returns the blows.

Shy, quiet people. Until they explode and take everything with them.

Frank took one last puff of his joint and felt hungry. Maybe it was time to walk into town for something to eat and stop thinking about the usual shit over and over again.

Pompidou started barking.

"Damn, now what?"

Frank stood up and stretched. He walked towards the door of the RV rubbing his head, suddenly dizzy. It seemed to be hot all of a sudden. Certainly more than one would expect in October.

Pompidou had stopped barking.

His dog used to be quite suspicious of strangers. It was a good sign of customer arrivals. But to keep quiet like that it the newcomer had to be someone the dog trusted.

Or someone who had frightened him.

Frank could hear a quiet voice and a few steps approaching the door. He wasn't in the mood and if someone wanted to buy something, he or she had to be quick and have fresh money because Frank didn't have much patience at the time. He opened the door of the caravan.

If his brain hadn't been paralyzed by what was in front of him, he would have slammed it shut.

But we can excuse Frank. It's not every day you find a walking corpse with a flaming face and head right in front of you.

When the thing took a step toward him, that was enough to make him react. Frank slammed the door shut and tried to lock it. He couldn't. The sensation of heat increased and Frank panicked and realized that the door was starting to turn red hot. He moved away before burning, backing up to the front of the RV.

The door was torn from its hinges and the burning thing released a roar that sounded like gravel. The slasher entered and turned to Frank. She walked slowly, calculating. Frank took his hand to the back of his trousers, where he used to carry a small revolver for a while. He fired without hesitation and with a firm pulse, despite the panic and incomprehension about what was in front of him. Three shots fully hit the slasher, two in the chest. The third in the forehead. The thing just bowed its head and Frank could see the molten metal of the bullets falling from the wounds that were already healing, like pus.

"Fuck this, for fuck's sake! Fuck it all!"

The panic had imposed itself and Frank threw the revolver against the head of the slasher with all his strength. The undead murderer caught the gun with ease. The metal of the revolver melted and fell between her smoking fingers almost as if it were jelly. Frank felt the heat inside the RV continue to increase. His eyes were watering and breathing was becoming difficult. The air burned.

When the thing started to move back towards him, Frank didn't think twice. He turned around and jumped... through the windshield.

It wasn't a good idea.

He noticed it right away when he touched the ground outside the RV feeling the pain of dozens of small pieces of glass stuck in his hands and arms, a few in his face. A stabbing pain in his left leg indicated that he had received a good cut. He could not imagine how much he was bleeding. He tried to stand up but his legs did not seem to agree.

Pompidou had started barking again. Frank turned his head and saw the fireball coming out of the RV door and the flames bursting through the windows.

"Pompidou! Run! Run boy, run! Get out of here!"

The dog made a gesture of approaching Frank but finally obeyed, moving away from the place as fast as his four legs allowed.

Then Frank heard her.

" **Good boy.** "

The voice was feminine, but it sounded cavernous.

Frank tried to crawl but could hear the footsteps behind him just before a black and charred foot hit him with a strong kick, turning him over and leaving him lying on his back. Frank felt the pain of the blow, the burn and the remains of glass sticking even more into his flesh.

The slasher sat astride him. Leaning forward, she laid her hands gently on Frank's face. He wasn't burned. The flames that bathed the cadaveric and burned head of the slasher like a mane of fire seemed to shrink... The yellow and orange of the fire gave way to a faint blue. For an instant, it seemed that the rotten face had gained life. Flesh. Eyes shone again in what had been empty sockets until then.

And Frank knew.

"Oh God"

Those were his last words.

The slasher said nothing. She took Frank's head and brought it closer to herself. She kissed him almost with passion, and with rage. Frank Bowers died after only a few seconds he felt eternal. A river of fire entered his mouth and filled his lungs, his organs, all his blood boiled. Of him there was only left an empty shell with a smoking mouth and eyes.

The RV burned.

In the distance, a dog howled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... first canon character death. Things are getting dangerous. Next time we will be back with the girls. And Vlad makes a discovery.


	12. Infernal Abracadabra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of infodump here. I still prefer to keep many details of Max's Endless Week as ambiguous, so keep in mind that what's being told here is just bits and pieces. I take a small license with her powers again, but the idea is that they grow and evolve with use. This Max can do a lot more at this point than she could in the original game. You'll see.

On their way to Arcadia Bay, Max had delved deeper into her story and Cassie began to understand why the 19-year-old girl sometimes seemed to have in her eyes the sparkle of someone much older.

Control over time, one week reconnecting with your best childhood friend, preventing another's suicide, resolving a disappearance/murder and all culminating in an apocalyptic event that would force her to relive that week over and over again until finally it all just _clicked_.

"I've lost count," Max explained to Cassie in the truck while Chloe was driving, "I've lost count of how many times I had to jump to moments in the past, how many extra photos I was forced to make for it, how many notes and instructions I left to myself, some of the decisions I had to make... I really hope that every timeline left behind would simply be erased or rewritten because otherwise there are many versions of me in the universe to whom I owe a debt that can't be repaid."

" _I must be grateful that time travel has never been bullshit to deal with_ ," Cassie thought.

Until now, at least.

"What happened to the Prescott kid?" asked Cassie.

Max looked down. Chloe took the floor, "A fucked-up situation of biblical proportions, that's what happened," started the blue haired young woman.

"Nathan... at the end of the day Nathan had been a victim of more than two unrelated circumstances," Max said.

"Fucking Jeffershit had manipulated his head to be his henchman, his padawan," Chloe continued, "But he could only do that because Nathan was already a little crazy because of the whole thing his old man was brewing."

Max continued the story, a story that she herself had struggled to unravel more than she would have dared to admit. The story of how the Prescotts had depleted those lands in a mad quest for power by appropriating instruments and rituals from the ancient native people. How the destruction and "purification" of Arcadia Bay was an experiment for the long run to gain more power on a larger scale.

Nathan had gone mad because he had had nightmares about the storm since his childhood.

"Everything that happened with Jefferson, Rachel's death, Nathan's role in it all... in the end everything was a collateral situation," Max explained, "It was all this that somehow led to the emergence of my powers, and it was that and me realizing what was happening that ended up derailing Sean Prescott's whole plan... even though he doesn't know it."

"If he doesn't know, how come he blames you for his son's death?" Cassie asked.

"He suspects," said Chloe, "At least that's what I think."

Max nodded, "In the end... the ritual could not be stopped properly, but it could be tampered with. The focal point of the storm created for the destruction of the village, the Tobanga totem, was... _altered_ by Chloe present here."

"Public vandalism to save the world!" laughed the blue-haired girl.

"Doing that... altered the storm," Max explained, "It was suddenly reduced to a tornado of normal proportions, smaller, more concentrated."

"The magical mumbo-jumbo they had prepared had some element of blood ritual linked to the family," Chloe said.

"Shit, I think I know which way this is going," Cassie said, "I'm not a mage or a witch but I've done my homework and without a proper focal point for the ritual..."

"The storm demanded a sacrifice... and if it couldn't be the town, it would be the closest Prescott blood link," Chloe said.

"In that last iteration of the week I had managed to resolve Jefferson and Nathan's situation in record time... it helped a lot to learn to bring Chloe with me in some of my jumps."

"Having a bunch of shitty memories that didn't happen all at once isn't fun," Chloe grumbled.

"How the fuck does that work?," Cassie asked.

"It's... complicated," Max explained, "When I go back in time I carry with me any object that is in my person. When I jump into a more remote past using my ability to use photos as temporary windows, I can take a person with me if they are in physical contact with me."

"Except it doesn't transport the person properly," interrupted Chloe, "Just memories. That morning I woke up with a headache and a head full of memories".

"Long story short... we solved the case as quickly as possible. An anonymous note to Chloe's stepfather on the one hand, a very rehearsed intervention to catch Nathan without the thing degenerating into a shootout on the other...", Max said.

"The point is that when we screwed up the ritual, the nearest Prescott was Nathan, held in a special wing of the hospital."

" The reduction of the storm gave time to evacuate, but..."

Chloe shook her head, "Supernatural shit, dude."

"The storm... the tornado at that point... fully hit the vehicle in which Nathan was being transported."

"It opened the thing up like a can of sardines," said Chloe, "The two paramedics and the driver? Unharmed. Bruised but unharmed. Basically like most of the rest of the town. A lot of people injured but no one dead."

"Except Nathan, the only confirmed victim of that day," said Max head down, "... we killed him, in a way."

"Bullshit, Maxipad, we've already had this discussion," interrupted Chloe, "If anyone killed Nathan it was his father's shit for putting on all the infernal abracadabra. Don't start all over again with the tune that you're a murdering monster, because that's not the case, damn it."

Cassie turned to the petite girl, "I'm with your girlfriend on this, Max. And believe me, I'm an expert at dealing with killer monsters and you're not one."

"I know, I know," Max said, "It just sometimes... it still overwhelms me."

Cassie nodded. Guilt was a heavy burden she knew too well. After a brief moment of silence, she decided to resume the conversation.

"What happened next?"

"Well... because of how the whole Blackwell thing was resolved, Sean Prescott was already basically blaming Max and me for his son being held and his family's good name being called into question."

"And when Nathan died...", Max started.

"The asshole also put the blame on you," reasoned Cassie, "Charming."

"That's exactly it," Chloe said.

"Luckily he couldn't do anything other than make some threats... everything exploded in his face those months, the FBI was involved in Jefferson's case and as he had received funding from the Prescott's... Well, the Prescott family has lost a lot of influence and power in Arcadia Bay."

"And if he tried anything, Max has taken precautions."

"But all this last year he hasn't done anything... just be a father raging at the world because he's lost his heir, at least to the public."

Chloe laughed quietly, without humor, "Yes, I don't think it would look very good if his plan to exterminate an entire population were made public."

"He hasn't done anything in a whole year... so far," Cassie said.

"Do you really think Sean Prescott might have something to do with the killer?" Max asked.

"Maybe not. Maybe so," Cassie admitted, "What you've told me puts him in a questionable... position. Knowledge of magical rituals is like a Pandora's box. Always."

"Well... And what's the plan?" asked Chloe.

"I don't rule out a talk with Sean Prescott in the future, but for now let's focus on what we know. The places of attack, possible routines of our flaming friend... She has already been to Blackwell and I would bet a possible return, if she follows the usual rules of a slasher. If that's the case we could..."

Cassie's explanation was abruptly interrupted when Chloe braked suddenly with a quick swerve to the right, leaving almost the road just at the entrance to Arcadia Bay.

Max gave a small cry of alarm when the violent turn basically threw her into the arms of Cassie, who was sitting in the center in the middle of the two girls.

"Chloe, what the fuck!"

Cassie was going to say something but suddenly she was staring at the road right in front of them, "A dog?"

Max then heard the whine of fear of the animal paralyzed by terror on the asphalt right in front of them. It seemed that the animal was about to run across the road and had stood right in front of Chloe's truck. Only the good reflexes of the young woman had prevented the hit-and-run. It was fortunate that there was no more traffic.

But at the time Max had something else in mind.

"Chloe, that dog is..."

"It's Pompidou," said Chloe Price, "That mutt never strays from Frank. Something happened to that asshole."

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Vlad had no trouble removing the boards from the floor that seemed looser than the rest. More... new. With that in mind finding beneath them a ladder to what appeared to be a forgotten basement of the old mill was not so surprising.

What he found there instead... Well, it seemed that the situation with this slasher was going to be more complicated than it would have been desirable.

In the center of the room was a pile of ashes and bones. Surrounding them were remnants of extinguished candles and a circle and symbols drawn roughly on the floor. Vlad had seen signs like those before and it was not a good sign. No sir.

"Ah, sHit... CasSanDrA hatEs thEsE gUys"

The arcane symbols of The Nef were never good news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, the Nef! Uh... those of you who only know Life is Strange and know nothing of Hack/Slash beyond this fanfic will be wondering what the hell The Nef is.
> 
> Well... we're entering Lovecraft country, fellas.


	13. Breather

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short light chapter... a prelude before the storm ;)
> 
> Ah, Cassie's ringtone is Alice Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)", the main song from the Friday the 13th Part VI soundtrack.

An old truck was parked near Arcadia Bay beach. The three young women and a dog watched from a distance the work of the firefighters putting out the fire of an old RV and the police cordoning off the area around a still smoking body covered with a sheet.

"Damn it," Chloe mused.

Cassie just watched with a frown and arms crossed. For her part, Max had sat leaning her back against the old truck and comforting a nervous Pompidou with gentle caresses on his head. The poor dog continued to tremble and from time to time emitted pitiful whines.

"Was he a friend of yours?" Cassie asked.

"Yes... no... it's complicated," replied Chloe, "Frank was my dealer, and there was a time when you could say he was a friend but... let's just say he was a familiar face."

"He wasn't bad all the time," Max clarified, "He helped us more than once, even if he was a scary jerk."

"Whether he was a jerk or not, he didn't deserve this, damn it," Chloe grunted.

"Another close contact with you..."

"Excuse me?" Max said.

"Cassie, you're not suggesting that Frank died because he knew us."

"No, nothing so direct, but... we have two kids who died in what seems to be the first place where the slasher appeared," Cassie explained.

"Wrong place, wrong time," Max said.

"Exactly, but you dreamt about it... but despite that we can say it was bad luck."

"Fuckin' bad luck," Chloe emphasized.

"After that, the next victim... the security guard at Blackwell."

"Another case of wrong place, wrong time," Max said.

Chloe nodded, "Yeah, that bitch was going for Katie, the guard was collateral."

"And Kate had a direct bond with you... and so did this Frank fella."

"And between that and my dream... We're potential victims, aren't we?

"Worse... I think you're specific targets, it's just..."

The melody of an old Alice Cooper song that Cassie had as a ringtone on her mobile interrupted the conversation momentarily.

"Shit, sorry, it's Vlad...", Cassie responded to the call, "Yeah, big guy?"

Max and Chloe could hear the murmur of Vlad's voice. They could not distinguish any words but their tone seemed faster than normal, almost alarmed. There was a striking change in Cassie's facial expression, which suddenly turned into a strange mixture of surprise, nervousness and irritation.

In the end the irritation prevailed. Cassie Hack's rage cleared her mind. Fear and nerves were just a burden.

"Fucking shit...," she whispered, "Ok, Vlad, listen... Do you remember how to use the camera on the phone? Yes? Well, take some pictures and send them to Cat, see what she tells us. As soon as you can go back to the town and call me when you get there, I'll tell you where we are".

There were a few other murmurs on the other side of the line, Cassie nodded in response "Yes, calm down, I'm fine... is just another piece of shit on the big list of shit we have to deal with. See you later, pal."

She hung up and ran a hand through her hair taking a breath.

"Well, I have news," she said.

Max and Chloe looked at each other sidelong for a moment. Finally Max stood up taking Pompidou in her arms.

"I assume they're no good," she said.

"Yeah, dude... for a moment it seemed like you wanted to scream and then rip something's head off," Chloe added.

"It's still too early to say anything, but this slasher could have more complicated origins than usual," Cassie said. "I'd rather wait and see what Cat says before we start doing theories. Do we go on to the town?"

They got back in the old truck, this time headed for Max and Chloe's apartment.

"Who's Cat?" Max asked.

"Maximus, nosy," Chloe said with a smirk.

Max's cheeks reddened slightly, giving her pale skin a pinkish hue as she pursed her lips in a pout of slight irritation, though not unwelcome. There seemed to be a bit of playfulness between the couple. Cassie found it adorable.

"It's okay, Chloe, let her ask," Cassie said, smiling at Max.

The girl seemed to redden more. This time the blush reached her ears.

" _Yes, fucking adorable."_

"I didn't mean to be nosy," Max said, "It's just... sometimes I get curious."

"It's her inquisitive nature as an artist," Chloe said. The tone was mocking, but there was a strong undercurrent of affection in her words. Max replied with a smile of her own that made the punk's gaze light up.

Cassie just shook her head slightly at the couple's antics. She realized with some surprise that seeing that interaction had lifted her spirits despite the disturbing news of Vlad's call a few minutes ago. She decided to respond.

"Well Max, answering your question, Cat is an old friend and collaborator... a kind of private detective and supernatural specialist."

"Cool," Chloe said, "Is it like a John Constantine with tits?"

"More like a grown-up Nancy Drew addicted to sugar and looking like a cross between a cheerleader, a cowgirl and Lara Croft."

"That... that's an interesting mental picture," Max said.

"While we're waiting for news, we're going to stick to what's been planned so far."

"Go to our apartment and wait for the night?" asked Chloe.

"Yes, eat something and rest for the rest of the day. At midnight we will go to Blackwell and... Well, we'll have to put a bait."

Chloe frowned, "Because of what you mentioned earlier, it's gonna be us."

"And so am I," Cassie said, "I'm gonna be stuck to you all the time."

"Hey... And how are we going to do that?," Max asked, "Just walk through Blackwell at night and see what happens?"

"Well, you're a lesbian couple," Cassie explained, "For the standard slasher you should be like catnip, so a couple of minutes of public making out in the square in front of the central building should do it."

Max blushed again, wide-eyed.

Chloe chuckled, "Hella yes!"

Cassie patted the youngest girl on the shoulder, "No shame, Max. If it's any consolation to you, I'll probably run topless around you to reinforce whatever psychosexual aura there is that attracts those sick undead bastards. So if there's any other witness, they won't even remember you, just my pair."

Max took her hand to her forehead with a sonorous clap. Pompidou barked in response.

Chloe started laughing like a pirate.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

The trio of young women weren't the only ones who stopped to watch the devastating spectacle of the aftermath of Frank Bowers' death.

A black, discreet BMW had been standing in the parking area at the foot of the beach, close enough to witness the scene. Far enough away not to be part of it. Its tinted glass concealed the figure inside that observed everything.

He watched her work. And smiled.

A few minutes after Cassie, Max and Chloe left he drove off, gloved hands in leather holding the steering wheel. Things weren't working out the way he wanted. The instrument was brutal and uncontrollable. Once upon a time he would have used something faster, cleaner.

But he wanted to see them burn.

 


	14. Picture to Burn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're not fully into the action yet. The initial part of this chapter took longer than I had planned, so I decided to cut into what would have been half of the original idea for the chapter.

"Well, I've looked at the pictures Vlad sent me and yes, they're symbols of Nef."

It was the last hours of the afternoon. Max, Cassie and Vlad were sitting at the table in Max and Chloe's apartment. Cassie's phone in the middle of the table, on speaker. Cat Curio, Cassie and Vlad's research friend had contacted to provide information regarding the symbols found by Vlad in the old mill. A few feet away, Chloe was sleeping on the sofa with Pompidou in her lap.

"Specifically, they're a kind of invocation ritual," Cat continued, "It involves a human sacrifice to bring something back."

"THat eXpLains thE reMaiNs I foUnD," Vlad said.

Max shook her head, "Did someone kill someone to bring that killer thing here? Who... What kind of crazy person does something like that?"

"Someone with a lot of hatred, someone cowardly," Cassie said.

"I'm sorry I can't give more data," Cat said, "If it's any consolation, it's a relatively minor ritual within what one can expect from the Nef, so I doubt you'll have to deal with dimensional leaps or  giant space tentacles this time."

"Well, something's something, I guess..." Cassie mused, "Though it still leaves us with the problem of a slasher that has been created with such a ritual."

"I've been digging and... Well, you know how varied slashers can be even at their starting points, but I haven't found anything to indicate that a slasher created that way should be more complicated than the usual ones".

"EvEn tHe usUaL cAn be cOmpLicaTed," said Vlad, "ThIs oNe is."

"Isn't there any way to reverse it?" asked Max, "Find the summoner and... I don't know... persuade him to undo what he's done?"

"I'm afraid not," Cat replied, "A human life has been used, blood covenants and yadda yadda yadda yadda... these things are usually irreversible in that sense."

"Which means having to kill the slasher as usual," Cassie said, "Anyway, thanks for the help Cat, we'll tell you when it's all over."

"Ah! I forgot a detail!" exclaimed the detective.

"What is it?"

"You can't rule out that the summoner won't intervene directly or that the Nef haven't given him... some of the traditional extras: strength, resistance... those things."

Cassie took her hand to her forehead, covering her frown. She snarled.

"Fucking great, besides the living lighter we may also have to deal with the sorcerer's apprentice."

"I know, right? Have fun!"

And with that, Cat hung up.

"I'm gOiNg to sHarPen the BlaDes," said Vlad, rising from the table.

Cassie and Max sat alone facing each other. Cassie was still holding her hand to her forehead, thoughtful. Max seemed nervous and worried.

"Hum... Is it normal for things to get so messed up?" she asked.

Cassie looked at her with an eyebrow raised, "Girl, if I told you..."

"Tell me, we have time."

"Well, the Nef... you might be wondering what they are."

"I must admit that if... from what I've heard they're some kind of cult or something?"

"Ha! Almost... Well, I wish they were just that," laughed Cassie, although there was no humor in her voice, "They are... gods, I suppose. Two brothers, masses of floating tentacles the size of buildings that govern their own dimension that they give name to... What's fucked up is that they feel lonely and want to have their own followers, their own people, but they can't create life out of nothing."

"Then... Do they capture people? Do they demand sacrifices?"

"Oh, yes, but even worse... they usually use an agent on Earth, someone they help become famous, extremely fucking famous, and this agent captures victims for the Nef, specifically virgin women."

"Oh," Max whispered. She didn't like where the story could go with that detail.

"Oh, indeed... The Nef got them pregnant and used them as mothers for their offspring and followers."

The expression on Max's face wouldn't have been strange on the poster of a horror movie.

"So...," Cassie continued, "Never become the groupie of a rock star or an actor or you can end up being some demon's babymama."

The silence fell back between the two for a few moments. The only sound was the quiet breathing of a sleeping Chloe.

Max slightly raised her right hand, staring at it, "A year ago I wouldn't have believed a word."

Cassie nodded, "Dealing with your own piece of the strange and unusual opens the mind to new perspectives."

"And now... now we have a supernatural assassin made of fire, which could be a puppet of another person, and the risk of ending up burned because we're the targets, and..."

"It's normal to be afraid," Cassie interrupted.

Max looked up and for a second the slasher hunter had to suppress the urge to back off because of the intensity in the petite girl's eyes.

"I'm afraid," said Max in a firm voice, "But I'm even more furious."

The girl turned slightly, looking at the sofa where his girlfriend slept.

"Do you see her there? For many people Chloe was... a disaster. A punk, kicked out of high school, white trash, a junkie. A walking sack of hatred and sarcasm."

Max looked at Cassie again, this time with a hint of tears in her eyes.

"That walking sack of hatred and sarcasm asked me to let her die to save this town, because at her core she is more noble and brave that many would like to admit. And I did. At first I did. May God forgive me, because I am never going to do it myself."

She rubbed her eyes avoiding the falling of tears. Cassie continued to listen in silence.

"When I realized that it had been for nothing... Well, you know how that whole Endless Week got messed up," Max continued, "But there was one thing I swore to myself. That Chloe would live. That Chloe would live in peace and happiness. That no matter how complicated our lives were, I was never going to leave her alone again. And now, after a year, when we had settled into a routine of normality, when it seemed that things were beginning to get right in our lives... in her life... this happens and puts everything in danger. It puts her in danger."

Max's knuckles were white. Her fists clenched. Cassie could see that the girl had repressed the urge to hit the table.

"I won't allow that. Never," Max whispered in a tone of voice that Cassie knew very well. She had heard it in her own voice more than once. That mixture of cold fury and determination.

"I'm not going to let the world hurt her again," Max declared, gazing back at Cassie. But this time the slasher hunter didn't look back. She seemed focused on something right behind Max. Max's expression became perplexed for a moment and then she felt arms hugging her from behind and a soft breath on her cheek.

"Dummy," said Chloe, "I've told you a thousand times not to keep those things locked up inside. It's not healthy."

"Ch.. Chloe!", all the steel in Max seemed to have melted all of sudden leaving again the most usual shy personality in the girl, "You are awake! What do you... How much have you heard?"

"Enough," said the bluenette, "Now you're gonna get up and you're gonna come to bed with me."

"Chloe!" exclaimed Max looking sidelong at Cassie, who was now looking at them with a soft smile on her face.

"To sleep and be rested for what awaits us tonight, you little pervert," chuckled Chloe.

Now it was her turn to take a suggestive look at Cassie, "Unless the guest wants to sign up for some private party," asked Chloe, wiggling her eyebrows.

Max groaned embarrassed, blushing.

Cassie could see perfectly that Chloe was only joking, mostly, but at the same time... well, two could play that game.

"Mmm, tempting, veeeery tempting, but you're supposed to rest and I'm afraid I'd leave you both too exhausted, girls. Not to brag."

If Max was blushing before, now her face was a tomato. Chloe also showed a healthy pink tone on her cheeks, disguised by her half-smile, " Damn, you're hardcore, Cassie".

Cassie pointed to her chest, "Don't you see what I usually wear? Girl, I was born hardcore."

And then a voice killed the mood.

"You ReAliZe I'm oNly a roOm aWay aNd I HeaR eVerYtHIng, doN't yoU?"

Max, already standing, buried her head in Chloe's chest, who began to laugh. Cassie just sighed, but with a smile of good humor on her lips.

"Sorry Vlad, we'll try not to disturb your virgin ears."

"HuRn."

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

It was midnight.

An interesting hour. An hour of power. The hour of witches and spirits. Ideal to start a hunt for things that move at night.

Cassie knew it very well, she had known it since she was sixteen.

Max, Chloe and she were at that precise moment in front of Blackwell's central building, right at the foot of the fountain with the statue of the founder of the academy. Vlad patrolled near the dorm area.

Previous calls had alerted the security guards to stay... out-of-the-way and to leave the main doors open. The head of security, who had turned out to be Chloe's stepfather, was not very happy with the arrangement, but a chat with the boys at the police station had sufficed.

Cassie decided not to tell him that her stepdaughter was going to be there that night.

"Well, then... What do we do?," Chloe asked. In contrast to her usual bravado, the young woman seemed a little nervous.

"Kisses, touches... basically put on a public exhibitionism act. That attracts slashers like honey to flies."

"Am I the only one who thinks it's a very fucked-up thing to work that way?"

"No, you're not the only one," Max replied, "Seriously Cassie, what's the point of something like that?"

"Well, I'm not going to go into details but given their primary origin, all slashers... they have a homicidal aversion to Dionysian impulses."

"Say what?"

"Sigh... the most common slashers are moved by anger, hatred, fear... they abhor expressions of life, and the impulses of passion, sex or other vices and pleasures are primordial in that sense."

"Seriously, you should write a manual on these things," Chloe suggested. Max nodded, agreeing.

"I've thought about it, but I have no way of writing. It would be like an informational booklet instead."

It was then that they heard the noise of an engine, a car, driving at full speed, approaching.

"Wow, someone must be making a personal Fast & Furious in Arcadia Bay," laughed Chloe.

And then Max paled all of sudden. The girl grabbed Chloe and Cassie with surprising force and started pulling them towards the door of the academy.

"What the...!?"

"Max?!"

"WE HAVE TO GET AWAY RIGHT NOW!"

The engine noise was closer. A black BMW entered Blackwell's courtyard at full speed, jumping the sidewalk and climbing the stairs without ever slowing down, straight to where the young women had been until a few moments ago.

All three jumped avoiding full impact. The car crashed into the fountain.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Chloe shouted.

The car was wrecked. The person inside opened the door with a kick, making it fall. The individual who got out of the vehicle was of medium stature, completely dressed in black, with a dark ski mask hiding his face. Despite the condition of the car, he did not seem to have suffered any scratches. More worrying, he wielded a clipped shotgun.

" It ends tonight," he said, his voice low.

"I'm going to assume we've found the summoner," whispered Cassie, standing between the girls and the attacker, "Chloe, Max... enter the building and don't separate, I'll take care of this."

"But Cassie...", Max started.

"Max. I'll take care of it," and there was nothing in her voice to spark a discussion.

The man cocked his gun.

"Brave, but useless."

And then a knife hit the weapon, pulling it out of his hands.

"UsEleSs, yeS!" exclaimed Vlad, once again entering the scene running and getting ready to use his other blade. Cassie also jumped towards the masked man, waving her baseball bat.

"You're the king of entrances in extremis, big guy!"

"I hEard the cAr. SeEmed uNusual!"

And then there was fire.

Behind Cassie and right in front of Max and Chloe a flare rose from the ground to the sky and where there was nothing before there was now the thing they were supposed to hunt that night.

The slasher shouted, the same cry of rage and pain as so many other times, and tongues of fire exploded in all directions. Cassie, Vlad and the masked man fell to the ground, hit by a gust of hot air. Chloe, too, would have fallen if it weren't for Max having pulled her again a few moments earlier, and now the two of them were running towards the entrance door of the academy.

At that point, Chloe didn't notice the growing paleness in her girlfriend's face. Nor the drop of blood sticking out of her nose.


	15. Hell(a)fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Action! At last! Hope you enjoy this chapter.

As Chloe and Max entered Blackwell, Cassie jumped into action without delay.

Rising as if propelled by a spring after the fall caused by the impact of the hot air blow conjured up by the slasher, Cassie hoisted her reliable baseball bat and set out to hit the undead flaming killer in the head.

The slasher responded by grabbing the bat with her hand and stopping the strike, displaying reflexes that were not there last time.

Cassie blinked.

"Hum... you have improved."

The slasher actually nodded.

And Cassie took advantage of that instant to, without letting go of the bat, using it as a support and making a jump by giving a double kick with her two legs to the torso of the slasher, causing her to recoil.

The blow was enough for the slasher to release the bat but Cassie was now falling back to the ground and although she would rise in seconds, it was still a vulnerable position.

"CasSanDra!"

With a shout Vlad decided to jump towards the undead murderer, but strong arms grabbed his back. The masked man had released his shotgun and held the giant with an unusual force that did not correspond to his appearance.

"You're not going anywhere, neither you nor your friend."

The masked man lifted Vlad as if he were made of feathers and threw him at Cassie. The two slasher hunters fell to the ground together. The masked man turned to the burning assassin. She had stood still but a casual observation betrayed fury and rage. She opened and closed her fists continuously and her whole body seemed to tremble. It emitted an incandescent glow as if cracks with magma broke her blackened skin. Her skeletal face burned with a high intensity white flame that illuminated the scenery more than the lampposts in the square.

"Go get the two girls, I'll take care of these two busybodies."

The slasher turned her head toward him with a snap. The click of dead vertebrae could be heard clearly. The little that could betray the expression of that burned face bathed in flames indicated a high level of frustration and irritation. The masked man also seemed on the verge of losing his patience.

"They are your target. I have let you play and follow your instincts too long. Do what I brought you here to do."

The slasher made a pretense of advancing toward him, but stopped when the masked man shouted in an authoritative voice.

"DO AS I SAY!"

For a moment it almost seemed that the supernatural assassin was going to respond but at that moment she received in her face the impact of a huge butcher's knife, courtesy of Vlad.

" BUll's-eYe!"

"Good throw, big guy!"

Cassie and Vlad entered the fray again. The masked man cried out in frustration and rushed to pick up his shotgun. Vlad saw him and ran towards him like a human bulldozer. Cassie for her own part was preparing to face the assassin once more but at that precise moment the slasher shouted again and in a column of fire vanished leaving only blackened footprints on the ground and the smell of burnt flesh.

"Shit! Shit!"

Cassie turned to the academy. She thought she saw the glow of flames through one of Blackwell's windows but before she could run to the aid of Max and Chloe, a shotgun shot broke the silence of the night.

The young woman turned. Vlad was struggling with the masked man to get the shotgun and it was costing him more than it should have. It seemed that Cat's theories that the guy had achieved some supernatural super-mojo enhancement were correct. During the scuffle, the weapon had been fired but luckily the only damage had been a scrape on Vlad's arm. Something miraculous given the short distance.

"DoN't woRrY abOuT me aNd go hElp tHem CaSsanDRa!"

"You're not going to help anyone! You're going to stop interfering!"

With that last scream the masked man ripped the shotgun out of Vlad's hands and hit the giant with the shotgun in the face as if it were a blunt weapon, with such force that Vlad fell after flying a few meters. Armed again, the summoner aimed at Cassie.

"It's over"

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Max and Chloe were at that time in the hallway on the second floor of the academy. Max had insisted on going up as soon as they entered under the pretext of avoiding the chemistry room. Chloe hadn't questioned it for a moment. If there was one thing the young blue-haired punk had learned that last year was that in a moment of crisis one had to heed Max's directions, without exception or doubt, and instantly.

Max knew how to do things.

Suddenly the building trembled. There was a high-pitched sound, the sound of broken glass and an inhuman howl.

"What the fuck was that?!"

"The chemistry classroom. It explod... Chloe!," Max interrupted herself and grabbed her girlfriend by dragging her with her to one of the doors, "We have to get in here, classroom 205, quick!"

Chloe listened without hesitation. The classroom was like so many others in Blackwell, with two access doors, one to the front near the teacher's desk and another at the back behind the last row of tables. Just as they entered closing the door Chloe thought she could see the glow of flames in the hallway a few steps behind them.

Suddenly everything seemed warmer.

The couple were running towards the secondary door of the class when Max staggered and almost fell to the floor if it wasn't for Chloe holding her.

"Max! Are you okay?!"

Max didn't have to answer. Chloe watched as her girlfriend covered her nose with her right hand. When she pulled her hand away with a pitiful whining Chloe could see the actual river of blood that seemed to flow from Max's nose and had splashed into her hand. Her face was pale like that of a dead woman and her eyes also seemed to be injected with blood. Chloe had only rarely seen Max like this.

"Holy shit, Max! No, no, no, honey, no... How many times have you...?"

"A lot... she teleports... she's almost got us more times than... the class, we have to go out."

They had barely crossed the second door back into the hallway when the first one exploded into a ball of fire sweeping away the teacher's desk, the class TV and the blackboard and the first row of student tables.

Back in the hallway Max's eyes opened wide in an expression of panic and without further ado she pushed Chloe with a surprising force born of fear. The blue-haired girl, not expecting such an act fell to the ground a few feet away while a column of fire exploded right between the two. Max jumped back and covered her face with her arms. She fell to the ground screaming in pain from the fresh burns on her hands.

Chloe got up fast at the sound of her girlfriend's scream, but stopped suddenly at the sight presented to her.

The slasher was standing in the middle of the corridor, right between Max and Chloe, separating them. Max was on the floor, pale, nose bleeding, eyes watering, squeezing her hands against her chest and about to lose consciousness.

The slasher turned to the petite girl, like a predator realizing which was the most propitious prey. So Chloe Price decided to do something stupidly heroic.

"Hey! Flambé with legs! Roast chicken stuffed with shit!"

The slasher turned to the punk girl. One could almost say that with a baffled gesture.

"Yeah, I'm talking to you, you rotten hot dog! You think you're hot shit? You're trash! A bad-fucked cigarette butt!"

The killer seemed to shake her head and put Max aside, starting to move towards Chloe.

"That's it! Come and get me, you walking toast!"

Chloe flipped the bird with both hands and started running in the opposite direction,  looking back to see if the slasher was following her, hoping to move her away from Max.

The only thing she saw was the fireball flying towards her face.

With a mixed scream of panic and insult, Chloe jumped to one side dodging a flaming death by the hair. Her uncoordinated jump made her fall and hit the corridor wall, hard. Chloe sat on the floor with her back against the wall and severe pain in her left arm. She tried to get up in a panic, but the slasher was already right in front of her.

" _Fuck, fuck, fuck, right between the rock and the hard place... except the hard place is a shitty high school, and the rock is a psycho killer with a fire fetish_."

Though fear shone in her eyes and her body trembled with terror, Chloe did not let go of the bravado.

"Well... so a slasher, you're the first one I've met... you're ugly as hell, you know that?"

The slasher shook her head.

Something had changed... the aggressive stance of the undead murderer seemed to have diluted. The flames in her head, that mane of fire, had lost intensity. Little by little she went from an incandescent white to warm orange and yellow tones... and finally to a cold blue fire that illuminated the corridors of Blackwell with a trembling light.

The corpse-like and burned face seemed... to fill. Flesh that before had not been there, lips forming again over an exposed denture, empty sockets letting glimpse again a pair of eyes... A human face slowly forming among the flames. And a voice, the softest voice that had ever come out of the throat of that undead thing.

" **...corners** ", she said.

The voice of the slasher continued to sound like a cavernous echo, but quieter, almost serene... and there was a touch of sadness this time. Chloe could not help but frown, with her curiosity rising despite the fear.

"What?"

" **The corners of the world...** "

Chloe Price felt the blood in her veins turn to ice. She knew those words _too well_.

The slasher spoke again.

" **... our mere prologue.** "

The face in the flames was completed and Chloe recognized it as tears began to fall from her eyes. She tried to speak, to say something, to pronounce a name, _her name_ , but no sound could break the knot formed in her throat as she realized the depth of the horror in front of her.

And then Max's voice broke the silence.

"Chloe!"

The slasher turned her gaze to Max, who was again standing a few meters away with her arm outstretched, and shouted a cry of rage. She put her hands on her face, scratching it, splattering blood and ashes. Heat seemed to explode in all directions as her scream got louder and filled with wrath.

And then she burst into flames, hot as the heart of the sun, taking Chloe with her.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Max was sure she had lost consciousness.

It may have been just a few moments, but she only remembered the blackness between her fall to the ground after pushing Chloe and the moment she opened her eyes and saw the woman she loved sitting against the wall, with that undead thing in front of her.

She rose, repressing the nausea and the headache and by pure instinct shouted Chloe's name. This made the slasher react in a way that Max decidedly did not want. When the killer exploded into a ball of fire that enveloped Chloe, killing her for sure, Max ignored her own anguish and did not hesitate to rewind time once again, despite the feeling of having a herd of horses riding into her skull.

She had to do it more than once, and as always learn through her failures. Trying to run towards the slasher was a guarantee of immediate death for Chloe and herself. So did getting her attention.  It seemed that almost anything made the monster jump like an anti-personnel mine and explode with violence.

So Max fixed her gaze not on the slasher but on what was on the wall behind it.

Max Caulfield extended her arm one more time with her open hand. Despite the feeling that her head was about to explode, the exhaustion, the pain of the burns... Despite all that. For Chloe.

And then she clenched her fist.

And time _wept_.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

From Chloe's perspective, it all lasted an instant.

She heard Max call her, but when she turned to look Max was no longer there, the slasher seemed about to explode and...

It was as if reality was blinking.

Subconsciously, Chloe knew that something had changed when in a thousandth of a second the fire extinguisher on the wall opposite to her and behind the slasher disappeared into thin air...

... reappearing in an instant between her and the murderer, in the hands of Max Caulfield, and ready to use. If Chloe had been able to see the face of her newly materialised girlfriend she would have been alarmed by the blood flowing from her nose once again and the pale face pearled in sweat and the marks of dark circles on her eyes.

But she would not have been surprised by the steel and the fury in the eyes of the tiny brunette and her expression of righteous anger.

Because Max was a badass and Chloe had always known that.

The slasher stopped her tantrum, visibly surprised. This was more than enough for Max to point the fire extinguisher at her and...

"WELCOME TO THE MOSH PIT, SHAKA BRAH!"

As the fire extinguisher sprayed the slasher and was then used by Max as an instrument to hit the stunned undead murderer's head repeatedly until she fell to the ground, Chloe Price had to repress a facepalm, even despite the cold horror at the bottom of her mind and the ache she felt in her heart.

Only Max Caulfield could be so awesome and lame at the same time in a situation like that.

Just another reason to love her, really.


	16. Mad Max, or Being a Human Time Machine is Suffering

_With that last scream the masked man ripped the shotgun out of Vlad's hands and hit the giant with the shotgun in the face as if it were a blunt weapon, with such force that Vlad fell after flying a few meters._ _Armed again, the summoner aimed at Cassie._

_"It's over"_

 

...but by the time his words had left his lips Cassie Hack's baseball bat was already flying towards his face as she leapt forward with a cartwheel on the floor.

The shot resounded like thunder, deflected by the impact of the wood and hitting only the air. Now crouching right in front of the summoner, Cassie struck with all her might.

Right in the crotch.

Even with the improvements in strength and endurance that he could have achieved through his rituals and his dealings with the Nef, that had to hurt. Something that became evident when, with a pitiful groaning coming out of his throat, the masked man dropped the shotgun and leaned forward with shaky legs and short of breath, almost about to fall on his knees. Through the mask, glassy, angry eyes looked at Cassie, who couldn't help but respond with a smile. That seemed to piss him off even more.

"You little bastard, I'm going to..."

The man could speak no more. Two huge arms grabbed him and lifted him up, then crashed him back to the ground head on. A crack sound could be heard from the pavement.

Despite Vlad's intervention, the masked man seemed to be still conscious and trying to get back on his feet before the giant jumped on him again.

"Go LeNd a hAnD tO tHe giRls, CaSsiE!"

Cassie Hack nodded, took her wooden bat, and ran into Blackwell, thinking of how to avoid the flames that were beginning to spread down the ground floor.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

_Max Caulfield extended her arm one more time with her open hand. Despite the feeling that her head was about to explode, the exhaustion, the pain of the burns... Despite all that. For Chloe._

_And then she clenched her fist._

_And time _wept__.

 

Like the first time she did it, accidentally, a year ago, when she saved Kate Marsh from a suicide attempt, Max Caulfield froze time.

And her head, already pained by repeated use of her powers, suffered as if bathed in molten metal.

Max ignored the pain. The pain was an old acquaintance by now.

She began to walk, always slowly when she made this use of her power. Walking through space with time paralyzed was like making your way through quicksand and mud. Your whole body seemed to weigh twice as much and the air felt almost like a solid curtain that had to be passed through. Each and every muscle in Max's body screamed for rest, while her head felt heavier and heavier, with a dull, intermittent pain reminiscent of a ticking clock.

Step by step she approached the fire extinguisher on the wall just behind the slasher. In all this time - if such an expression could really be used - Max had avoided staring at Chloe. The girl feared that a glance at her girlfriend's frightened face would cause her concentration to break down. And she couldn't afford that if she wanted to save her.

Max took the extinguisher with trembling hands. As always when she took an object paralyzed in time and took it for use, Max felt as if she was taking off something attached with velcro. The fire extinguisher seemed to become more real in her hands, as if it suddenly had a weight and dimensionality that the environment around her lacked.

Max took a breath and headed for the slasher, standing between the undead murderer and Chloe. She almost lost concentration and let time return to its normal flow sooner than she intended by the shock of recognizing the face half-formed in the flames of the assassin.

Max couldn't help but imagine what Chloe must be feeling after seeing that face. The pain for the blue-haired girl must have been...

That pissed Max off.

The girl prepared the fire extinguisher, pointed to the slasher, took another breath... and let time run its course.

"WELCOME TO THE MOSH PIT, SHAKA BRAH!"

Okay, it wasn't the most mind-blowing war cry, sue her.

The sound of the extinguisher firing filled the corridor along with the white smoke from the extinguishing flames from the slasher. With a final effort and a mute scream that refused to leave her throat, Max grabbed the extinguisher and proceeded to use it as if it were a mace, hitting the slasher repeatedly on the head.

Once, twice, three times. The slasher fell to the ground, her skull crushed and deformed by the blows.

Max would have kept hitting, but the adrenaline decided to give it up at that moment. The fire extinguisher seemed to weigh tons suddenly and the petite girl dropped it on the floor. Max turned around, looking at Chloe, who was slowly rising from her sitting position on the floor.

The blue-haired girl couldn't suppress a gasp when she saw Max's face tired, haggard and bathed in the blood of her own nose.

Max smiling timidly did nothing but emphasize the surreality of the moment.

"Hey, Chlo..."

Whatever she was going to say - probably some sad and lame joke attempt - did not leave Max's lips. Max's eyes rolled and the girl began to fall forward, passed out.

"Max!

Chloe was able to catch her without much trouble, but she was alarmed and more frightened than ever. That's when she heard it.

A crunchy, humid sound.

Chloe looked up at the fallen slasher and watched nauseously as the killer's sunken skull seemed to inflate and heal. As the head regained its form, it burst into flames, a mane of descending fire, embracing the entire burned body, which had begun to rise.

Chloe did not stare. Taking Max in her arms she began to run towards the emergency stairs at the end of the corridor.

To only suppress a scream of frustration when the door was found locked.

" _What the fuck is this?! These fuckers are supposed to always be open! Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ "

Chloe turned, wondering if she would be able to run across towards the other stairs past the slasher, hoping that the killer was still disoriented.

To her misfortune, the assassin was already standing in the middle of the corridor. Looking at the two of them again with empty and dead eyes and the red of her flames dancing with increasing intensity.

For a second, Chloe thought that was going to be the end.

For a second.

The sound of footsteps running and a silhouette rising from the stairs broke that illusion. The slasher turned to face the newcomer... and received two feet on her face.

Cassie Hack had jumped extending her two legs forward and hitting the murderer directly on the head with all the impulse force she had accumulated.

The slasher recovered from the hit, shaking her head. She closed her fists and new flames emerged from her body as she uttered an inhuman scream that reverberated through the hallway. Chloe could hear the crystals of some windows breaking.

Ignoring the show of force, Cassie Hack simply stood in front of the flaming murderer, with her baseball bat in one hand and a machete taken from her backpack in the other, and a predatory smile in her black lips.

"Round three, asshole"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next episode: a resolution to the confrontation and, hopefully, a little respite for our protagonists.


	17. His puppet. Her...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. It's been a busy week: studies, family visits, watching Avengers Endgame twice...
> 
> ... you know, stuff.

She may have been able to resist the damage, she may have been an undead creature, but even the slasher retained enough reflexes of her past humanity to try to step aside and cover herself from the machete that flew toward her face.

Machete immediately followed by a Cassie Hack attacking with her trusty baseball bat.

The slasher had learned to respect and hate that piece of wood, you might say.

During the storm of blows that Cassie proceeded to inflict on the supernatural killer, she had time to get Chloe's attention.

"Take Max and get out of here!"

Chloe nodded, running to the stairs with her unconscious girlfriend in her arms. Behind her she could hear the sound of wood beating on flesh, groans of pain, and suddenly an animalistic scream accompanied by a sudden cloud of fire and heat that illuminated the corridor. Chloe ran downstairs without looking back, trusting that Cassie could manage. In her arms Max was still unconscious. Her nose had stopped bleeding but she was still pale and haggard. Soft murmurs escaped from her mouth, as if she was trying to speak in her dreams.

The ground floor was a disaster. The fire from the chemistry classroom explosion had miraculously not spread and seemed to burn slowly but there was extensive damage, broken glass and furniture, blackened shelves and walls. Chloe couldn't help but wonder why the fire alarm hadn't gone off. Perhaps they had exchanged it for one of those modern silent ones that send a direct signal to the firefighters. Or maybe the organization in Blackwell was even more shitty than she remembered.

Well, now she didn't give a shit about that.

Chloe Price ran to the exit, with the person she cared most about in the world in her arms.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

The weekend hadn't turned out the way she'd wanted it to.

Those were the ideas that circulated through the head of an irritated Victoria Chase as she drove back to Blackwell's dormitories, which she had hoped not to see again until Monday, not decidedly in the early hours of Saturday through Sunday.

Come spend the weekend with me, he said. We'll talk about your work and maybe get you a job in our gallery, he had told her.

All excuses to try to get under her skirt.

I should have seen it coming, that's what pissed her off the most. But last year hadn't been good for her. Too many cataclysmic changes in her life, too many headaches, too many things to reconsider. She wasn't as focused as she should be. That and that the pig was an old acquaintance and collaborator of her parents. He was supposed to be trustworthy.

" _Of course, knowing mom and dad... I'm sure they would have encouraged me to sleep with that bastard if that guaranteed me exposure._ "

Well, no, Victoria Chase wasn't going to sell herself that way.

Even if it meant having to race back to the Blackwell Academy dorms. She could almost see it...

Victoria Chase blinked.

The central building was on fire.

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

Vlad was strong.

Not always. As a child he had been weak, the pain of illness broking his bones and flesh, and only constant exercise relieved him. So he trained, practiced, fought, and ended up becoming the mountain of muscle and combative ferocity he was today. Not many could match him in pure brute force, even among slashers.

That's why he was beginning to feel some frustration when none of his blows seemed to be able to knock down the summoner.

The masked man was not tall, Vlad was sure that he was middle-aged and surely little given to exercise. But the magical potency he had received from the Nef turned him into a juggernaut. The only fortune in all this is that the asshole had no idea how to fight in the right way.

That didn't stop him from sending Vlad flying a couple of times with a good hit.

Immersed in the fight, the giant noticed a car braking suddenly in the street in front of the access stairs. The masked one did too.

And it was at that very moment that they heard the sirens.

" _FiRefiGhtErs_ ," he thought, " _Or cOps_."

It was clear that the summoner should have come to a similar conclusion. He gave a final push to Vlad knocking him to the ground and ran to the newly arrived car.

From the inside of the vehicle, a stunned Victoria Chase watched as a guy that looked like a domestic terrorist shoved a giant that seemed a wrestler -or was at least as big as one, mask and all- several metres away and then began to run straight towards her and her car. He was fast and before the young woman could react, the stranger had already opened the door so hard that he had almost wrenched it away.

"Get out of here!"

The masked man grabbed Victoria Chase by the arm and pulled her out of the car. Victoria suppressed a scream for the pain in her arm, and was sharp enough to reach out her hand and get something out of her purse before being pulled out of her seat.

Something she made immediate use of.

Pepper spray. Straight into the eyes of the masked man.

He shrieked, putting one hand to his face. With the other he pushed Victoria, who fell to the ground. The stranger tore off his mask, splashed by the remnants of the spray. His face was red and his eyes injected with blood and bathed in tears, with an expression of hatred and irritation now directed at her.

Victoria gasped, recognizing a face she had seen many times.

Before he could do anything, the sound of the sirens intensified, closer than before. At the same time, Vlad was already running down the stairs ready to continue the fight. The summoner grimaced in frustration and got into the car, starting it and reversing at full speed. Vlad would have jumped over the hood of the car, but a voice stopped him.

"Vlad! Help!

The giant turned and could see Chloe running towards him with Max in her arms.

The sound of tyres indicated the strange man's departure and Vlad allowed himself to relax a bit. At least he was no longer in combat. He looked around to help the girl of the car to get up, a young blonde with a pixie cut, just as Chloe arrived next to them.

Seeing the blue haired punk, Victoria Chase could not repress herself.

"Of course! Of course the two of you would be involved in whatever this madness is."

"Icky Vicky, I wish I could say I'm glad to see you, but that would be bullshit."

Chloe had managed to get a perfect balance of kindness and irritated sarcasm in her voice that stunned Vlad. It was quite impressive.

"I assume you already know each other."

They all turned around when they heard the new voice. At the top of the stairs and descending slowly was Cassie Hack. She was disheveled, full of bruises and grabbed her left arm, which seemed to be covered with burns. All her clothes and the rest of her skin were stained with ashes.

Her baseball bat was little less than a piece of charred, incandescent wood.

"You could say yes, but... fuck, Cass, what did...?"

"CasSanDra, arE yOu aLl riGHt?"

The tone in Vlad's deep voice was too soft for someone as big as him. One could almost feel the worry dripping from the words.

Cassie shook her head with a half smile.

"I've been better. Also worse. Our flaming friend fled when the sirens began to approach... which reminds me that we shouldn't be here when the firefighters arrive".

"ANYONE WANT TO TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!"

Victoria Chase's voice silenced anything that any of the others could say. In Chloe's arms, a still unconscious Max uttered a slight whimper.

"Fuck Chase... Look, it's not the best time..."

"Bullshit, Price! I'd like to know why there's a fucking fire, why Caulfield looks like she' s going to die in your arms and why the hell _Sean fucking Prescott_ was here with a mask fighting this gorilla and then ran away stealing MY car!"

Silence could almost be cut with a knife.

"WeLl...," Vlad began.

"We have the last piece of the puzzle," Cassie finished.

Chloe's face had become serious. A furious glow gleamed in her eyes.

"Victoria."

"... Price?"

"You're going to take Max and you're going to take her to your room right now. Ask Kate for help. If your conscience feels uncomfortable collaborating with her, ask Dana or Warren for help."

"Price, if you think I'm going to obey you as if..."

"Victoria, look at my face. Serious face. Let's cut the bullshit. You've seen what just happened. The situation is as fucked up as the Jefferson thing was. If you are aware of what that implies, do as I say and wait for further notice."

 

*  *  *  *  *

 

In the end Victoria did as she was told, after a brief moment of indecision that was resolved with an intense look from Cassie.

" _Do what she tells you or..._ ", it seemed to say.

After that, Chloe, Cassie and Vlad had escaped in Chloe's truck just before the first firefighters arrived. Chloe had insisted on making a stop at her apartment first.

"How are you both?" she asked while driving, "Can you keep going?"

"I'd rather sleep after bandaging this, but something tells me that answer wouldn't satisfy you," Cassie replied.

"Tonight," said Chloe, "We're going to end this fuck-up tonight."

"SeAn PrEsCotT," said Vlad, "Do yOu knoW hOw to fiNd hiM?"

Chloe nodded, "I know where he lives, I know how to get to him."

"I know Max has been hurt, but this sounds like you've got more of an unfinished business with that guy beyond the obvious of being responsible for the slasher trying to kill you," Cassie said.

"The slasher...", Chloe started. She interrupted herself for a moment, gulping, "Before you got to the top floor we could see the face of the slasher. It... she calmed down. Just a moment. It was as if her face was regenerating or growing again and..."

And Chloe told them.

To Chloe Price, Max Caulfield was the most important person in the world. Of all worlds.

And Sean Prescott had tried to kill her.

Using Chloe Price's second most important person as a weapon.

The slasher, his instrument. His puppet.

The slasher, her dead friend. Her angel.

Rachel.


End file.
